Just Friends
by SwayingAngel
Summary: What will happen when one of Ray's friends becomes ill?
1. Chapter 1

**Authors note:** This is my very first story so I'm really sorry that it sucks. You're welcome to review and tell me what I can improve and so on.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the ER characters. I do, however, own Lee.

"How about this one?"

"Oh come on Lee! You know there's no way in hell I'm watching that movie, it's just not going to happen", the rather handsome man answered the petite girl holding up what seemed to be a horror movie.

"Aww, what's the matter. Ray scawed of the big bad monstews?" , she mocked, obviously doing her best to provoke him.

"Um, no. But if I you happen to recall the last time we saw a horror movie I ended up with bruises and you refused to go home since you were too scared to sleep by yourself", he said taking the movie from her and putting it up on the top shelf where he knew she couldn't reach it.

"Dude, what the hell? No fair!" she said swatting him on the arm.

"And for your information, I didn't refuse to go home I was just too tired to drive" she added flipping her long dark hair and turning her back against him.

"Fine, whatever you say shorty".

She just glared playfully at him.

"Kay, so what about this one?" , handing a movie to her.

"Ah, Requiem for a Dream, I've heard a bit about it. It's supposed to be really good. And considering the fact that Jared Leto is a fucking god I definitely don't have any problems watching it"

"Requiem for a Dream it is then" he sighed rolling his eyes at her.

"Hey I saw that!" she yelled, hurrying after him to the checkout counter.


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors note: **Just figured I'd clarify that Lee is an old friend of Ray's

After nearly an hour a Blockbusters the duo finally made their way up the stairs to Ray's apartment.

"Dude, that chick was totally checking you out" Lee said mocking him.

Stopping mid-step he took her hands and looked deep into her chocolate brown eyes "You know I've only got eyes for you baby" he sarcastically replied

She flashed him a killer smile, "Oh I know"

Shaking his head he slowly started ascending the stairs once again.

Once at the door he got his keys and opened the door only to find the apartment completely silent for a change.

Looking a bit surprised, "Wow, quiet. And empty." He said walking through the front door

"Now this is not something you see every day, Ray Barnett's apartment completely empty. I half expected some naked girl to meet you at the door" she said looking up at him

Glaring at her "Your so funny today, it's crazy"

She simply smiled at him walking into the kitchen to make some popcorn.

"Hey Ray, where do you keep the salt" she half yelled while looking the cupboards.

"In the cupboard next to the stove" came his reply.

Finding the salt she took it from the cupboard, grabbed a couple of sodas and the popcorn making her way to the couch.

"How's it going there Mr. AV-geek?" Lee said laughing at her friend who was now proceeding to hit the DVD player.

"The damn thing won't open!"

Seeing the remote on the table, Lee took it and pressed the on button and then the open button. And what do you know, the damn thing opened.

"What the hell?" Ray said looking up at her.

She simply held up the remote.

He put in the movie, got up from his spot on the floor and sat down on the couch while she got the movie up and running.


	3. Chapter 3

Halfway through the movie Ray got up and went to the bathroom. When he got back he found that Lee was fast asleep. He gently shook her awake.

"Hey sleepyhead, can't fall asleep in the middle of the movie..."

Slowly opening her eyes, "Hmph." Was the only reply she could muster.

"Tired?" he asked

"Very. Do you have a blanket I could borrow? It's kind of cold in here" she asked looking at him with tired eyes.

"Yeah, just a sec" he got up and walked to his room and got a blanket.

"There you go" he said giving it to her.

"Thank you" was her tired reply

He sat down in the same spot as before and put her legs on his lap so she could rest against the armrest. That was the side of Ray that very few got to see. He was usually the cocky self-assured guy that some people had a hard time getting along with. But he had a soft, caring side that only a select few knew about.

When the movie ended Ray looked over at her just to find her sleeping again.

"Hey, wake up. You missed the movie man" he said, shaking her awake for the second time.

Opening her eyes once again, she sat up looking around a bit disoriented.

"Sorry"

"You okay?" he asked, concern written all over his face.

"I'm alright, I'm just tired and a bit cold" she said giving him a half-hearted smile.

"You sure? Come' ere" he said reaching to put his hand on her forehead.

"I'm fine, you really shouldn't worry so much" she replied, ducking away from his hand.

"I'll worry all I want, now sit still.". He knew she would never tell him if she wasn't feeling well. She didn't like doctors and when he'd decided to become one she freaked. He reassured her that he'd still just be Ray and that nothing would change. She'd accepted that but she still refused to meet him at work and such when they were to hang out.

She complied and stopped ducking his hand. When his cool hand connected with her skin she closed her eyes, relishing the feeling.

"Lee, you're burning up! How long have you been feeling like this? Do you have a headache? Sore throat?" he asked, going into doctor mode.

"I felt fine earlier. Yeah, I've got a bit of a headache, nothing major though. Nope, nothing wrong with my throat. And Ray, there's no need to turn into ´Dr. Barnett´. I'm fine, it's probably just a cold. I'll just go home and sleep it off" she said, trying to not to worry him even though she was feeling like a freight train had just run her over.

"Probably, but you're not going anywhere tonight. If you're better in the morning I'll drive you home before my shift", by the tone of his voice she knew he meant business and that there was no use to argue with him. It wouldn't stop her from trying though.

"Oh come on, I'm 23 years old. I think I can take care of myself. Anyways, I've felt worse than this, this is nothing", she lied.

"Whatever, I know you and you're far from fine…."

"Ra…" She interrupted.

"Wait, let me finish. You're not feeling well but I know you'd never admit it to me. You don't like doctors I know this, so don't look at me as a doctor. Look at me as, Ray, your best friend, who's trying to look after you" he said, looking into her feverish brown eyes.

"Hmph, fine, I'll stay. But only for tonight." She said, giving up.

She laid back onto the couch, closing her eyes.

She felt him lifting her legs and setting them down on the sofa when he got up. She could hear him rummaging around in the bathroom for something.

After a couple of minutes he came back with a thermometer, Aspirin and a glass of water.

"You awake?" he said gently laying his hand on her forehead.

Opening her eyes, eyeing the things he brought with him "Mhm" came her reply

"Open up" he said while shaking down the thermometer

"Is that really necessary?" she asked.

"Will you stop arguing with me for once in you life and just do as I say", he was getting fed up, she could tell.

"Fine" she pouted, crossing her arms over her chest but opening her mouth nevertheless.

He gently placed the thermometer under her tongue telling her that she'd have to keep it there for three minutes.

He got up and walked over to the phone which was located in the kitchen. She could hear him talking to someone but she couldn't make out what he was saying.


	4. Chapter 4

Three minutes later he was back at her side.

"Open up" ,he said, taking the thermometer from her mouth and reading the result.

"103.5. That's pretty high buddy" he said looking at her.

He bent down next to her. She could see him reaching for the Aspirin bottle opening it up. He took out two, and put the bottle back on the coffee table.

"Here" he said, holding out the pills for her to take.

"Um, I don't think I can take those" she said, looking at him.

"Why not", he replied with a sigh, thinking she was about to argue with him.

"I took some painkiller earlier today. Cramps you know?" she said, blushing and looking away.

"Ah, do you know the name of the meds you took"

"No, but they're in my purse" pointing to the black, leather bag on the kitchen table.

He swiftly rose to his feet, walked over the table and rummaged through her bag looking for the medicine bottles. Finding three bottles he put them on the table and closed the bag. First one was regular ibuprofen, second one was for menstrual cramps. Figuring that the two should be taken together to achieve pain relief he put them back down. The third one however was for hypothyroidism. Quite high of a dose at that..

He brought the bottles back to the couch and sat down in front of her.

Opening the ibuprofen bottle he took out one and put the bottle on the coffee table.

"Here, this one you can definitely take" he said, giving her the pill.

Sitting up, holding out her hand, she took the pill from him as well as the glass of water he was offering her.

She downed the medicine as well as the water.

He looked worriedly at her. But there was something else in his gaze; she couldn't for the life of her figure out what it was.

"What?", she asked, getting a bit self-conscious.

"What's this?" he said, holding up the third bottle.

"I think you know what that is", was her reply.

"Why didn't you tell me?", he asked looking a bit hurt.

"Didn't think it was that big of a deal. I've got problems with my thyroid. I'm taking pills for it, that's it. I mean what was I supposed to say Hey Ray, I'm sick, getting pills for it, just thought you should know…That'd just be odd, plus you're such a worry wart. ", she replied frowning.

"I still think you should have told me. How long have you had it?", he told her.

"Well there's nothing I can do about that now is there?. About 9 years now. Had I known you at the time I'd probably have told you but I didn't. Anyhow, it's not like it's a life threatening disease.", she said closing her eyes, starting to feel a bit nauseous.

"I guess there isn't, but you still should have told me." He said, the hurt evident in his voice.

"I know, but can we please deal with this later. I'm really not up for it now", she told him, feeling the nausea getting substantially worse.


	5. Chapter 5

Feeling like the popcorn she'd just eaten was on its way back up, she rose to her feet and ran with shaky steps to the bathroom and started vomiting violently.

Within seconds she could feel him holding back her hair with one hand and stroking her back with the other.

A couple of minutes later the vomiting calmed down. Lee was hanging over the toilet looking pale as a ghost. Ray got up and got a cup of water and handed it to her. She gratefully took it washing her mouth of the retched taste that was currently occupying her mouth.

He went to the linen closet and got a washcloth. Soaking it in cold water he sat down behind her pulling her from the toilet and putting her head in his lap.

Letting him pull her onto his lap she closed her eyes, relishing the feeling of the cold washcloth he was touching lightly to her face.

"Feeling any better?", he asked

"Nausea's a little better. But I wouldn't say I feel better", she weakly replied.

"How the hell could I have gotten this bad in just a couple of hours", she asked, looking miserably up into his forest green eyes.

"Well, you've probably been carrying it for a while now. I know you've been pretty stressed out and that makes you more susceptible to bugs like this", he responded matter-of-factly.

Feeling another wave of queasiness summing on she sat up and hung over the toilet just as she started vomiting. He sat up and held her hair and rubbed her back until it subsided.

Once again giving her the water glass he lifted her up and carried her to his bedroom and laid her down on his soft bed.

"Ray, I can't take your bed" she said weakly.

"Yes you can, and you will. Don't argue with me", he told her as he saw she was about to protest.

"Thank you", she whispered.

"Don't worry about it", he said while handing over a 30 seconds to mars t-shirt that he'd gotten from his dresser only moments before.

Hearing the front door close he told her to put it on and he'd be right back.

He softly closed the door to his room and quickly went to meet his roommate at the front door.

"Did you bring the things I asked for?", he asked the small Indian woman standing before him

"Yes, I got you stethoscope, some tongue depressors and all the other things you asked for. I also added a few things I though you might need", she answered with her lovely British accent, handing the bag to him.

"How's she doing?", concern evident in her voice.

Looking in the bag he found everything he asked for plus a few useful additions he hadn't thought of.

"Hallelujah, Neela, I love you. She's been better. Her temp is 103.5 last I checked it, she has a headache, she threw up like crazy a little while ago and she's starting to sound a bit hoarse"

"Poor thing, let me know if there's anything I can do", Neela replied hearing the girl coughing in the other room.

"Well now you can add a cough to the list", he said sarcastically.

"I better go check on her", her told his friend, while turning and heading for his room.


	6. Chapter 6

Opening the door he found her under the covers in a fit of coughs.

"You okay?", he asked her when the coughs subsided.

"I've been better" , she answered, her voice being substantially more hoarse than it had been 5 minutes ago.

"Can you sit up for a sec?" , he asked her getting out his stethoscope.

She nodded and sat up, too sick to argue with him.

He sat down on the bed next to her.

"I'm just going to listen to you lungs, it'll only take a sec", he told her.

She once again simply nodded.

He put the earpieces into his ears and gently lifted up the back of the shirt. He had already warmed up the stethoscope to make it as comfortable for her as possible.

"Deep breath", he told her

Moving the stethoscope he told her to take another deep breath. He repeated the action a couple of times.

He removed the earpiece from his ears and put the stethoscope around his neck. He moved so he was facing her.

"Does your throat hurt at all?", he asked

"Yeah", she plainly stated.

He reached up to feel her glands noticing they were quite swollen.

Reaching down into the bag Neela had gotten for him he got out a small flashlight and a tongue depressor.

"Open your mouth for me", he insisted.

She complied without any fuss at all.

Turning on the penlight he placed the tongue depressor in her mouth and flashed the light down her throat.

Removing the depressor her turned the penlight off and threw them both on the nightstand.

"Lee, your throat is pretty swollen. Your lungs, however, sound fine", he told her so she wouldn't worry

"I'd just like to take your temperature again then I'll let you sleep okay?"

"Okay"

He got out a thermometer from the bag and placed it under her tongue.

"Three minutes", he stated and she nodded laying her head back down on the pillow.

He stood up pulling the covers back over her. He then sat down again at her side and took her wrist proceeding to take her pulse. He noticed it was a bit high but figured it was due to the fever.

When three minutes had passed he took the thermometer from her mouth and checked the result.

"103. A bit lower than before", he stated.

Laying the thermometer on the nightstand with the penlight and tongue depressor he reached up and stroked her hair.

"I'm sorry", she said looking tiredly up at him

"For what?"

"For this, I feel bad for making you take care of me"

"You didn't make me remember? It's actually the other way around if I remember it correctly.", he told her.

"True", she said quietly after thinking about for a minute.

"I'll let you get some sleep", he said.

Getting up, Ray took a pillow and the shirt he usually slept in continuing to the door..

"I'll be right out here if you need me", he said walking out and quietly closing the door after him.

Walking to the sofa he looked at his watch noticing it was only midnight.

He threw the pillow on to the couch he pulled off his t- shirt and the jeans he had been wearing and proceeded to put on the shirt he slept in.

Laying down he let out a sigh before falling into a restless sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

Lee wasn't doing any better on her end. After falling in and out of sleep for what seemed like forever she felt the need to use the bathroom. She threw off the covers and got out of the warm comfortable bed she had been laying in and put on the sweatpants that were laying on the floor next to it. Sure they were a bit too big but at least they were warm. Feeling miserable she made her way out the door and over to the bathroom, trying to be as stealth as possible.

Just as she was about to turn the doorknob of the bathroom door she heard someone whispering from the couch.

"You okay? Nauseated?", he asked concerned.

She shook her head.

"No it's not that bad, I just need to use the bathroom.", she explained walking into the bathroom and locking the door.

A couple of minutes later she emerged from the bathroom only to find Ray sitting on the couch watching some old Leno re-run.

She walked over to the sofa and sat down next to him.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?", she asked him?

"Can't", he stated simply.

"You should really take the bed, after all, I'm not the one who has to go to work in a couple of hours", she said, trying to persuade him to take the bed.

"I'm fine, plus I've got a night shift so no worries"

"How are you feeling?", he asked turning to face her.

"The same", she answered honestly.

"Why don't I help you back into bed. You really need to get some rest", he told her getting up and tugging her up with him.

Following him back to his room she got back into bed and let him pull the covers back over her.

He laid a hand on her forehead to see if the fever had gone down. Unfortunately it felt about the same.

"You really shouldn't be around me, I'm just going to get you sick", she told him.

"I'm around sick people all day, don't worry", he said, smiling reassuringly while stroking her hair.

Closing her eyes she enjoyed the feeling.

When she could still feel his presence in the room after a couple minutes she scooted over to make room for him in the bed. He laid down next to her as he had many times before. The two had been known each other for almost six years. In a way he was like her Dawson, even though they had shared the same bed many times, the friendship was strictly platonic.

Looking over at the small woman at his side he could see she was fast asleep. He closed his eyes and within minutes, they were both sleeping relatively peacefully.


	8. Chapter 8

At promptly 8.30 am they were both awakened by the dreadful screeching of his alarm clock.

Groaning, Ray rolled over hitting the off button. Yawning he rolled back to his previous position so he could face her.

Looking into her newly awakened eyes "How are you feeling?" , he asked her.

"Same old same old, my throat hurts, my head is killing me and my whole body aches. On top of that it feels like about to freeze to death", she answered truthfully.

"Not better at all?"

"A bit better maybe, I don't know", she said frowning.

Ray rolled over towards the nightstand and got the thermometer. Rolling back he told her to open up. He placed the thermometer in her mouth not saying anything else knowing she was already familiar with the procedure.

Three minutes later her removed it noting the result.

"Still 103. If the fever doesn't break soon I'll have to take you to the ER." He informed her, knowing she wouldn't like that...

"I'll be fine, no need to take me anywhere but home." , she told him stubbornly

"Lee, listen to me. I can help you but you're going to have to trust me. If the fever doesn't break you'll need to go to the hospital, that's all there is to it.", Ray told her matter-of-factly.

"We'll see", was all she said turning away from him.

"Fine…" , said getting out of bed.

She could hear him putting one some clothes and then walking out of the room. She knew he was probably irritated with her but she didn't really care. Why should she have to do something just because he wanted her to? She shouldn't and therefore she wouldn't.

She heard some bustling from the kitchen but seeing as she was too tired to even care she fell back to sleep.

She was awoken by someone shaking her. Groaning she opened her eyes seeing Ray standing there with a plate of food and a glass of apple juice.

"Here", he said, holding out the plate to her.

"I'm not hungry" , she told him shaking her head while pushing the plate back at him.

"I know but you need to try and eat something", he informed her once again holding the plate out for her to take.

"But I'm really not hungry" , she said sitting up

"Like I said, I know but can you please just try and eat the toast at least?"

"Fine", she said, taking the plate and putting it one the bed next to her. Taking the piece of toast she then proceeded to take a bite of it. After having eaten half of it and drinking the glass of juice she put the toast back on the plate. Giving the plate back to her friend, who was now sitting on the bed watching her like a hawk, she could feel a wave of nausea wash over her. Realizing that it was only going to get worse she got out of bed and ran once again with shaky steps to the bathroom.

She arrived just on time, because just as she leaned over the toilet she started vomiting violently.

A few seconds later she could feel someone pulling back her hair and rubbing her back. As the nausea subsided she started sobbing.

"Hey, hey, hey. Lee you're okay", she heard his voice coming from the doorway

Wait a minute, she thought. If he's there then who was holding my hair. Turning around she saw the concerned face of Neela who was now holding out a glass of water and a tissue for her to take.

She gratefully took the items the woman was holding out to her. Once again washing her mouth of the awful taste.

By now Ray had gotten another washcloth and was gently washing her face with it.

"Oh crap" , she said, leaning over the bowl as the first heave wrenched her body. By the time she was done tears were falling freely down her pale cheeks. Ray and Neela, who were still in the room, looked at the girl with sympathetic eyes, both noting how tiny she looked.


	9. Chapter 9

Wiping Lee's face with the damp washcloth, Ray took the small form of what scarcely resembled his usually lively friend in his arms and held her until she calmed down. Noting her breaths were coming out a little ragged he mouthed to Neela to get the bag, penlight and his stethoscope.

Returning only moments later she bent down next to Ray, who was now holding a much calmer Lee.

Mouthing to Neela to check her lungs, Ray told Lee what was going to happen and carefully lifted up the back of her shirt. Neela put the earpieces in her ears and held the stethoscope to her back just as Ray had a couple of hours ago.

Taking off the stethoscope Neela handed it to Ray.

"You might want to listen to this", Neela said quietly.

Lifting Lee from her current position against his chest he told her to sit up for a second as he was going to have a listen.

She nodded as he put the earpieces in his ears and continued to listen to her lungs. What he heard was a few crackles on the left side which hadn't been there when he last had a listen. Pulling down her shirt he took out the earpieces and put the stethoscope on the floor.

"Lee, I heard some crackles on the left side" , he told her, looking straight into her eyes.

"What does that mean?" , she asked, visibly frightened.

"It can indicate a lung infection", he said "but we need to do some more tests so we can find out for sure what it is."

She nodded, closing her eyes letting a silent tear fall from her eye.

"Don't worry hun, we'll fix this." , he said reaching up and wiping the tear away.

"I'll get you some clothes." , he told her getting up and heading for his room. In minutes he was back with a pair of grey sweatpants, a black sweatshirt as well a blanket to wrap around her figuring her short coat wouldn't provide her with much warmth.

Helping her to her feet he helped her pull on the pants and the sweatshirt then wrapping the blanket around her.

Leading her to the couch he told her to sit down and wait for a few minutes so he could get dressed.

He quickly ran to his room taking off the clothes he had previously been wearing and pulling on a pair of jeans and his Employee of the month shirt. Not bothering with anything else he gathered his keys, beeper and cell phone making his way to the kitchen. Putting his things in Lee's bag he took it and went over to where she and Neela were sitting.

"Come'ere babe," , he said, helping her up from her position on the sofa.

Walking to the door he put on his coat and shoes and then helped her with her shoes.

"I'll call you later Neela", he called to his friend who was watching the duo from her position on the couch. With that he opened the front door and ushered Lee out before closing it leaving Neela all by herself in the apartment.

The drive was very quiet except for the coughing fits that came over Lee now and then.

After parking the car the two walked the short distance to the ambulance bay.

Looking over at his friend he saw the fear in the girl's eyes. Trying to comfort her he took her hand in his and slowly guided her through the doors of the ER.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note: **I have no idea what could cause the symptoms Lee's has and what they'd do about it so I'm bullshitting it as I go. Just so you know.

Walking in to the ER Ray noticed the waiting area was almost completely empty for a change. On that note he and Lee walked straight up to the front desk where they were greeted by a seemingly happy Chuny.

"Hey, what's open?" , he asked the woman standing on the opposite side of the counter.

"Pretty much everything, we're freakishly slow today", Chuny answered.

"Who's this", she asked looking at Lee.

"This is Lee, an old friend of mine" , he told her, knowing she'd think Lee was his conquest of the day or something.

"I'm taking her to exam 3, who's on?"

"Um, Kovac, Pratt, Abby and Carter"

"Okay, thanks", he said offering her a smile as he turned to face Lee. Still holding her hand he led her to exam 3.

Noting the room was completely empty he helped her get up on one of the beds and tucking her under the blanket they had brought with them.

"I'll be right back, kay?" , he told the young woman laying on the bed before him.

"Yeah", she said nodding her head and closing her eyes.

Leaving her he went headed for the front desk where he saw Carter and Abby both filling in some charts.

"Hey, could one of you hand me an empty chart", he asked the two seeing as they were closest to them.

"You can get your own chart Barnett" , Carter said looking up at him

"Fine", he said walking around the desk finding the empty ones.

"Chuny told me you brought a girl with you, who's she? Your girlfriend?" , Abby said teasingly.

"No. She's just a friend. A very sick one at that", he told her sincerely.

"Right" , she said, obviously not believing the part of her not being his girlfriend.

"What's wrong with her?" , Carter asked the younger doctor,

"She has a high-grade fever, nausea, headache among other things. I heard a few crackles on the left side when I examined her earlier."

"Well let's go see how you friend is doing now shall we", Carter said to Ray while heading for exam 3.

Ray grabbing the empty chart headed straight after Carter

Walking into the room after Carter he found that his friend had dozed off.

Heading for the bed he put his had on her shoulder gently shaking her awake.

"Hey, buddy, you need to wake up", he said

Opening her eyes she saw another man in the room.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Carter, how are you feeling" , he asked the young woman.

"I've been better" , she said looking at her hands.

Ray could see she wasn't comfortable with the situation so he took her hand once again seeing as it helped her calm down earlier.

Surprised at the younger mans comforting gesture Carter once again focused on the patient "When did you first notice you weren't feeling well" , Carter asked.

"Yesterday evening. I was fine all day but when we were watching a movie I started getting tired and very cold. After that it was all downhill", she told the older doctor.

Sitting down next to her Carter took her wrist checking her pulse. Noting it was far higher than normal. He also noticed her tensing as soon as he touched her.

"Your pulse is very high, nervous?" , he said looking the girl in the eyes.

Looking away she simply nodded.

"She doesn't like hospitals" , Ray informed his colleague

Standing up Ray motioned for Carter to do the same thing. The two men walked over to the other side of the room out of earshot of Lee.

"She really doesn't like doctors", said Ray.

"That must make your friendship tricky" , Carter countered.

"Nah, we just tend to not talk about my work. Look, why don't I examine her? At least she trusts me." , Ray said looking the man in the eyes.

"I really don't think that's a good idea Ray" , Carter said looking rather sceptical.

"Why not? She'll just give you a hard time, believe me. I mean she got pissed when I was going to take her temp yesterday and she knows me. Knowing her she'll be worse now since she doesn't know you" , he told him.

"She doesn't mean to difficult, she's usually really laid back. It's just the whole situation." , Ray added.

Contemplating the information Ray had just given him Carter agreed telling him to present to him when he was done. Giving the younger man a stethoscope her left the room.


	11. Chapter 11

Back at her side he sat down taking her hand.

"Lee, I'm going to examine you. Nothing to be scared about. It's just me, Ray. Alright?"

She nodded looking away.

Standing up he told her he was going to lift her shirt up so he could listen to her heart. Hearing her heartbeat had slowed down a bit he got her to sit up so he could listen to her lungs. Seeing as it hadn't gotten any worse he took off the stethoscope and hung it around his neck.

"How's your throat feeling?" , Ray asked feeling the glands on her neck.

"Hurts", was her answer.

Reaching for a tongue depressor and the penlight someone had left on a tray he told her to open up. He gently placed the tongue depressor in her mouth and shined the light down her throat. He noted it was still very swollen and red.

"You can lay back down now" he told her helping her lay down.

He then proceeded to lift her shirt up a bit so he could feel her abdomen.

After about 15 minutes he had finished the examination and went off to find Carter.

Finding him sitting in the lounge sipping a cup of coffee and reading the paper he informed him that he was now done.

"Alright let's hear it"

"Temp's 103.5. Crackles on the left side, sore throat, body ache and nausea. I suspect it might be pneumonia. However that seeing as it came on as quickly as it did it might just be a very bad case of the flu as well as laryngitis "

"Kay, what's your plan?" , Carter asked now looking up from his paper

"CBC, blood culture, chest X-ray, two liters of saline, 500mg ibuprofen and 200mg of tigan for the nausea" , Ray answered.

"Sounds about right" , Carter agreed turning back to his paper.

Nodding, Ray turned and left the older man to begin the treatment.

Walking past the front desk he ran into Chuny who was occupied with some charts.

"Hey Chuny can you order a CBC, blood culture and a chest X-ray for my friend in exam 3? Oh, and can you please get me 500mg of ibuprofen as well as 200mg of tigan and bring it in to me?", he asked the nurse.

"Sure. Want me to get an IV going and draw the blood for the tests too?" , she asked.

"Nah, she's got a thing about hospitals so it's probably best if I do it. Thanks for the offer though." , he said heading for Lee's room


	12. Chapter 12

**Authors note: **I'd like to thank everyone who has reviewed. It's great to get some feedback and constructive critisism.

And melbo18. No you wont get what Lee has just because you have hypothyroidism.Sorry to hear you have hypothyroidism though, it really sucks to have it. Believe me, I know.

* * *

Walking through the door he found Lee staring into the ceiling.

"Whatcha doing?" , he asked taking a seat next to her bed.

"Not much, just counting the ceiling tiles" , she whispered.

"How many so far?" , he asked seemingly intrigued.

"I'm up to 134 at the moment. But I've only gotten like halfway so... ", she said, still counting the tiles.

After a couple of minutes of silence Lee finally stopped counting and turned to her friend.

"So what's the verdict?" , she asked with a sigh.

"We're going to run a few tests so we can find out for sure what it is. But until then we're going to give you ibuprofen and see if we can't break your fever. I'll also give you tigan which will help your nausea." , he said , "You're not going to like this but I'm going to start an IV so we can get some fluids into your system. Are you okay with that?" , he asked

"Do I have a choice?" , she countered.

"Sure you do. But I'm only trying to help you" , he told her honestly.

"Fine, do whatever you want. But if you hurt me so help me god I'm kicking your ass when I get better" , she said sarcastically.

"Now that's the Lee we all know and love" , Ray said with a smile.

Getting up he started to assemble everything he'd need for the IV and the blood draw. Finding everything he'd be needing he put it on a tray and sat down on the stool he'd been sitting on only minutes ago.

Pulling on a pair of latex gloves he quickly cleared an area on her left arm with rubbing alcohol where he'd collect the blood sample.

Taking the syringe he'd gotten he warned her that he'd be sticking her. She simply nodded and looked away feeling the sharp metal pierce her skin.

"You okay?" , he asked her while removing the needle from her arm.

"Yeah" , she plainly stated still looking the other way.

"Can I please go to the bathroom before you put that thing in?" , she asked turning to face him.

"Sure, I'll show you where it is" , he said standing up tossing his gloves into a nearby trashcan.

Helping her out of the bed the duo made their way over to the nearest bathroom. Waiting for his friend to finish Ray got ambushed by a very curious Abby.

"So where's the girl?" , she asked looking around.

"In the bathroom" came his reply.

Just as he said that a very pale Lee walked out from the bathroom.

"All done?" , he asked his friend?

"Yup" , she tiredly stated.

"Abby, this is Lee. Lee this is Abby" , Ray said turning to Abby.

"Hello" , Abby said to the girl.

"Hi , nice to meet you." ,she said to Abby. Turning to Ray "May I please go lay down, my head is starting to spin" , she said looking up at him.

"Of course, come on." , he said putting his arm around her back.

"Talk to you later Lockhart" , he said while leading his friend back to her room.

Getting her settled back in bed he reminded her that he still needed to get an IV started.

Looking at him, with a small smile she said , "I was hoping you'd forget about that"

"Haha, nope"

"You suck" , she told him half joking.

"Aw, but I know you love me" , he said.

Pulling on another pair of gloves he once again cleared an area on her left arm with rubbing alcohol.

"This might sting a little, but I'll do it as quickly as possible" , he told her

"Mhm", she said not looking at him

When he put in the needle he could see her cringe.

"There you go, all done. It wasn't too bad now was it?" , he asked her while hooking up the IV.

"Speak for yourself, that hurt." , she told him with a pout.

"Oh come on, it couldn't be that bad. You've got a tattoo for Christ sake, compared to that there's no way this hurt"

"Compared to that no, but it still hurt so shut up" , she said with a small smile.

"Fine" , he said standing up and tossing his gloves in the same trashcan as before.

While he did that Chuny walked through the door with the supplies followed by another nurse.

"Here you go Ray, sorry it took so long but something came up" , Chuny told him setting down the tray with supplies.

"Not a problem. Could you please send these blood samples up to the lab?"

"Sure" , Said Chuny taking the two vials he was holding out to her.

"You know what, I was just on my way up to the lab so I can take those with me" , the other nurse said giving Ray a flirtatious smile.

"That'd be great Anna, thanks" , he said flashing her one of his killer smiles.

Taking the vials from Chuny, Anna walked out heading straight for the lab.

"Dude, you really need to stop flirting with people to get things done, otherwise I'm telling you, you're going to get burned and you know it" , Lee told him smacking his arm.

"Ow. I know, but I can't help that the ladies love me" , he countered smiling at her.

"Fine, whatever you say Mr. I-own-a-Britney-Spears-CD"

Hearing Chuny bursting out in laughter he glared at his friend, "I thought we agreed not to talk about that Miss. I-like-Hanson" , he hissed.

"That's true, but I honestly don't care if people know I like them, you on the other hand Mr Rock star-dude have a reputation to uphold" , she said giving him a triumphant smile.

"Oh I like her already" , Chuny said walking out the door.

"I'm not letting you go through my CD collection ever again" , he told her with a pout.

"Aww, you know you will" , she managed to get out before she started to cough.

"You okay?" , he asked when the coughs subsided.

"Just peachy" , she said sarcastically while Ray injected the meds into the IV.

"I think you should get some rest before you go up to radiology"

"Probably" , she agreed.

"I'll be back when it's time to go okay?" , he said standing up

"Um, Ray?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you just sit with me for a while?" , she said looking pleadingly into his eyes.

Feeling his heart go out to his friend he told her he would and promptly sat down on the stool he'd been occupying.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note:** I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while it's just that I've been really busy lately seeing as I'm graduating next week. I'll try to update more often from now on.

Oh, and thanks for all the reviews!

* * *

After about 5 minutes Lee had fallen asleep, Ray then got up, kissed her forehead and went out the door to find some coffee.

Discovering that a fresh pot of coffee had just been made he poured himself a cup and sat down on the comfortable sofa in the lounge.

Taking a sip of the black liquid he closed his eyes, relishing the taste of it. Putting the cup on the coffee table before him he leaned back closing his eyes, intending to only close them for a few minutes.

He opened his eyes after what he thought to be about 15 minutes. Looking at his watch he noticed that was not the case, it had in fact been 1½ hours since he left Lee in her room.

Getting up he hurriedly walked over to her room only to find her sound asleep with Abby at her side.

"Oh, hey Ray" , Abby said looking up at him.

"Hey, has she been to radiology?" , he asked

"Yeah, she got back about 40 minutes ago and she's been sleeping ever since"

"Why didn't you come get me! And how the hell did they even manage to get her up there?" , he asked obviously upset.

"Because she told me not to. I told her you were asleep but that I could wake you for her. She told me not to bother because you needed to get some sleep." , Abby told him trying to calm him down.

"And it wasn't hard to get her up there 'cause I went with her" , she added.

"You did? …. thanks…" , he said scratching his neck looking slightly confused.

"Not a problem. I got to hear some juicy stories about you so it was definitely worth it" , she said standing up motioning for him to take her seat.

"Oh no. What did she tell you?" , he said covering his eyes and shaking his head.

"Nothing much, just something about you falling into a fountain last Halloween?" , she said with a laugh.

"She didn't!" , he said horrified.

"She did. By the way, the films indicated that it's pneumonia. It's very mild so with a round of antibiotics she'll be fine " , she informed him leaving the room.

Sitting down on the stool Abby had been occupying he gently took her hand and rested his head on a part of the bed that wasn't covered by Lee.

He must have fallen asleep cause the next thing he knew he was being shaken awake by his friend who was now up and about.

"Hey" , she quietly said when she saw him open his eyes.

"Hey" he said yawning.

"Been up long?" , he added

"Nah" , said noting he still looked very tired.

"How are you feeling? You look a bit better" , he said taking the thermometer and sticking it in her ear.

"I fell a bit better but I still feel like shit" , she said with a small smile.

Seeing that her fever had gone down he put the thermometer back in its rightful place.

"Well your fever has gone down some so that helps. I don't know if someone told you but the X-ray confirmed that it's pneumonia. It's, however, a very mild case so after a round of antibiotics you'll be pushing me into fountains in no time"

"That's it? Why am I throwing up like crazy then? I meanI thought pneumonia only had to do with the lungs" , she asked slightly confused.

"Well my guess is that you've got the stomach flu too. The two aren't related so getting them at the same time was just really bad luck" ,

"Go figure." , she said rolling her eyes.

" So I can go home now?" , she added hopefully.

"Soon, I just have to get you a prescription for penicillin and get someone to cover my shift. Then we can go."

"First of all I'm allergic to penicillin so think again. Second of all you don't have to get someone to cover our shift on my account. I'll be fine by myself, I promise." , she insisted.

"Fine, I'll get you a prescription for a macrolide called Zithromax then. And I know you'd be fine by yourself but I'd still rather not leave you alone." , he countered, scribbling down something on a prescription pad.

"Not that I know what that is, but okay. You're very sweet but I can't keep you from doing your job. There are other people who need you more. Plus, I'm getting kind of sick of you." , she grinned.

"Funny… Alright, I'll let you go by yourself on one condition?" , he said looking uncharacteristically serious.

"And what might that be?"

"That you go over to my place so I can keep an eye on you for a couple of days"

"Oh come on! I can't do that! Who's gonna feed Zorro if I'm gone that long?." , she said raising her voice but immediately regretting is seeing as her throat hurt quite a bit.

"Well that's my offer. Either you go to my place by yourself or I get someone to cover for me and we go to your place. Simple as that. And as for the cat, I bet Jenna could take care of him for you" , he told her with some power.

"Meah, have I told you that you suck? Fine, I'll get Jenna to watch Zorro. Get me a phone so I can call her." , she sighed in resignation.

"You have, several times as a matter of fact. Here you go." , he said handing her the phone and dialing Jenna's number with a small smile of triumph.

"I'll run over to the pharmacy and get you prescription. Be back in like 10 minutes." , he added leaving the room.

She only nodded and waited for Jenna to answer the phone.


	14. Chapter 14

Feeling the urge to use the toilet she slowly made her way over to the bathroom and locked the door. On her way to the bathroom she had tossed the blanket she had wrapped around her onto the couch.

When she was done she was feeling miserable but not miserable enough to go to sleep so she simply crawled up on the couch, pulled the blanket over her and turned on the TV.

After flipping through what seemed to be a million channels she finally found something worth watching, namely Gilmore Girls, which just so happened to be her favorite show. She'd already seen the episode several times before but somehow she never seemed to get sick of it, she never got sick of any of the episodes for that matter.

Even her love for Gilmore Girls couldn't keep her awake, for 15 minutes later she had fallen into a much needed slumber.

It had been an awful shift for Ray. After Lee left they had gotten slammed with a 6 car pile up which had kept them busy for a while. Unfortunately only 3 of the 9 patients they had gotten had survived, one of them being an 8 year-old girl who had lost both her parents and her older brother. It had been brutal. On top of that he couldn't stop worrying about Lee. He knew she wasn't in any danger but he still didn't like leaving her alone.

Thankfully his shift had just ended so he quickly assembled his belongings and hurried home.

Once home he found a bag with Lee's clothes outside with a note attached to it.

_Lee,_

_No one opened the door so I'm leaving your clothes here._

_Hope you feel better soon honey, and don't worry about Zorro, I'll take good care of him._

_Love,_

_Jenna_

Ray grabbed the bag and opened the door taking care not to slam it shut as he usually did since he didn't want to wake Lee seeing as she was probably sleeping.

He put the bag down by her purse and tossed his things onto the couch.

"What the hell?" Lee yelled sitting straight up feeling miserable and quite frankly pissed off due to the rude awakening.

"Ah!" Ray yelled frightened by her outburst. "You scared the shit out of me!" he hissed.

"I scared you? You were the one who woke me in a not so pleasant way I might add" she told him with a pout.

"Sorry! I didn't see you there," he told her defending his actions.

"Whatever" she said waving him off and reaching for the remote to turn the TV off. When it was off she tossed the remote onto the coffee table and lied down again in hopes of getting back to sleep.

She was just about to fall asleep when she heard his voice right in front of her. She slowly opened her eyes only to find him leaning over the backrest of the couch and his face right above hers.

"What do you want? Can't you see that I'm trying to sleep?"

"I said, why don't you go to my room and take the bed? It's more comfortable and you won't be disturbed by Neelas morning ritual which tends to include a version of whatever shitty pop song she's heard on the radio," he told her persuading her to take the bed.

"Nah, I'm good here. I'd rather like to hear her sing the latest Britney Spears song actually. And if she hasn't heard it yet you can just lend her your CD," she told him with a teasing smile.

"Now go away so I can sleep," she added closing her eyes.

"Funny," was all he had to say.

Standing up, Ray walked around the couch, bent down and lifted up his friend.

"Dude! Put me down!" she half yelled but not doing a very good job of it since her throat was still in pretty bad condition.

"Nope, I'm not going to have you come whining into my room when Neela wakes you up. That'll wake me up and I'd rather not have that happen," he told her carrying her to his room and putting her down on his bed.

"Fine," she said moving over to the side of the bed she had occupied the night before.

"Where is Neela by the way?" she asked looking over at Ray who was now in his boxers.

"In her room probably. I talked to her earlier and she said you were watching Gilmore Girls. She didn't want to disturb you so she went to her room to get some sleep," he told her pulling an old tee over his head.

"She wouldn't have disturbed me. It's strange that I didn't hear her come in though," she said frowning.

"Not really, no one can disturb you when you're watching GG. It's like you're in some freaking trance or something," he told her climbing into the bed next to her.

"Hm, true," she said nodding.

"So how are you feeling?" he asked while pulling the covers over them both.

"To summarize… bad…" she said trying to find a comfortable position.

"Figured as much. Just try and get some sleep."

She nodded still trying to find a comfortable position and for the life of her trying to get warm.

When she ten minutes later still hadn't found a comfortable position nor gotten any warmer, she rolled out of bed trying not to wake her friend who seemed to have fallen asleep. She tip-toed out of his bedroom and went over to the sofa and collected the blanket she had been using earlier.

She silently sneaked back into his room and carefully got back into the comfortable bed.

Lee then reached down and pulled the blanket over the covers that already covered her body. Looking over at her friend whom she tried so hard not to wake she noticed that she hadn't done a very job of that because he was awake and looking at her intently.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," she said

"Don't worry about it," he said gently

"Cold?" he asked

She merely nodded.

"Come' ere," he said motioning for her to move closer.

She moved closer and let him put his arms around her, warming her with his body heat. Feeling his warmth she rested her head on his chest and put her arm around his torso immediately finding a comfortable position. Within minutes they were both sleeping fairly contently.


	15. Author's Note

**Author's note: **I know I promised I'd update more but I've been busy. Sorry.

Kay so well I've got a question for you all. Do you want Ray and Lee to get together or do you want them to stay friends? I've already got a new chapter written in both scenarios. So let me know what you guys want.


	16. Chapter 15

**Author's note:** I know I suck at updating but my computer decided that it really didn't want to work anymore so I haven't been able to use the internet for a little while now. Sorry. But here's the chapter I've been promising you all.

Oh, and thanks to all of you who've reviewed and let me know if you want them to get together or not. I've received a few emails as well as the reviews so you'll have to stay tuned and see what'll happen. Will the get together or wont they? Wait and see.

* * *

Ray lay in bed wide awake. He had woken up an hour earlier, at 9:03 to be exact, feeling unusually rested. He was still holding on to the small form of his friend who was currently sleeping peacefully against him.

He had thought about getting up and getting breakfast but he knew that would wake Lee and she needed the rest, plus he kind of liked having her there and didn't feel particularly tempted to ruin the moment.

Half an hour later she started to stir. He gently stroked her hair with the hand which arm she was currently resting her head against. Lee slowly opened her eyes and was greeted by the gentle eyes of her friend.

"Hey," he said softly still stroking her hair.

"Hi," she replied, her voice laced with sleep and hoarseness.

"How you feeling?"

"About the same," she answered honestly.

"Am I crushing your arm?" she asked sitting up, a bit concerned that she was hurting him.

"No, no. I'm good, promise. You can lie back down," he told her, tugging her back to her previous position.

Settling back down, she sighed feeling content. Or well as content you can when you have a soar throat, a fever, a cough and generally just feeling like shit.

Reaching over to the nightstand he got the thermometer which hade been laying there since the previous morning.

"Open up," he commanded softly

She complied by opening her mouth and letting him place the cold thermometer under her tongue.

After about three minutes Ray removed the thermometer from her mouth noting that her fever was still steady at 103 F.

"Still 103," he told her slightly worried about the fact that her fever wasn't breaking.

"Sucks," she said with a yawn.

"Mm," he agreed nodding while pulling her closer.

Looking at the alarm clock located on the nightstand she noticed it was almost 11.

"Shit!" she hoarsly yelled. "I was supposed to be at work an hour ago and I haven't called Mya," she panicked.

"Hey, hey, calm down. I had Neela call her yesterday and explain the situation. I would have done it myself but I thought that'd be strange seeing as she knows who I am and all. Didn't want her to think you're faking it or something."

Looking at him with wide eyes she hit his arm "You could have told me that earlier, I was just about to have a heart attack. You know how Mya gets when I'm late," she said

"Ow! Sorry," he said with a pout.

"Whatever, I just think you could have told me," she said with a yawn which turned into a fit of coughs.. She turned away from him as she didn't want him to see how much it had started to hurt when she coughed. He'd just worry.

He gently rubbed her back as the coughing subsided.

She slowly sat up and rested her head in her hands.

"You alright?" he asked her, also sitting up.

"I've been better. I'm just really, really tired and I don't want to feel like this anymore, "

she said with tears threatening to spill over.

"Come'ere," he said pulling her into a hug.

As he pulled her into his arms she let her tears fall, knowing she was safe as long as he was around.

"I know this is tough, but you can fight this, I know you can. And I'll help you anyway I can, you know that right?" she didn't answer but he could feel her nod against his shoulder.

They stayed in the embrace for a couple minutes until Ray noticed his friend breathing had become even and steady. She'd fallen asleep.

He gently laid her back against the pillow and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. He silently got out of bed and put on a pair of sweatpants. Before leaving the room he pulled an extra blanket over her and tenderly placed a soft kiss on her forehead.


	17. Chapter 16

Ray had called and gotten someone to cover his shift so he was now sitting on the sofa watching an episode of DOOL, it wasn't much on in the middle of the day and since Lee was still sleeping and Neela was at work he'd resigned to watching this crap. Well, to be honest, he kind of liked it, but he'd never admit that to anyone. On his days off he would usually watch it religiously. Right now Sammy and Eric were in the middle of a huge fight that he'd anticipated would be coming any day now. He was so engrossed in the scene unfolding before him he didn't hear Lee pass him on her way to the kitchen.

Lee had been woken by what sounded like someone having a fight. She tried to block the sounds out and go back to sleep but she couldn't, no matter how tired she was and how much she needed to sleep she just couldn't.

Getting sick of lying in bed she got up and pulled on some clothes. She sat down on the edge of the bed feeling a little dizzy and out of breath after getting dressed. Lee was slightly frightened by the fact that she couldn't even do such a small thing as getting dressed without getting dizzy. She'd been able to do it yesterday so why not today?

Not wanting to worry Ray she decided it would be best to not say anything for the time being. If it got worse she'd tell him, but for now she'd just let it be.

When the dizziness passed and she'd caught her breath she slowly got up and walked out of Ray's bedroom.

When she got to the living room she found the source to the 'fight' she thought she'd heard. Ray was watching Days of Our Lives and Sammy and Eric seemed to have finally gotten to the fight she knew was bound to come. She looked at her friend who seemed thoroughly focused on the show it when finally clicked, Ray was watching DOOL!

She was so going to have to remember that for future reference. It was always good to have something else than the knowledge of his Britney Spears CD to blackmail him with.

Lee didn't have the heart to disturb him so she walked into the kitchen and got a glass of water. Finding her pills in a neat row on the counter she got her usual meds as well as the antibiotics Ray had gotten for her. Downing them with the glass of water she felt herself getting dizzy again and needing to steady herself. She grabbed onto the counter with both hands and thereby dropping the glass she had been holding which fell to the floor and shattered into a thousand pieces.

Closing her eyes all she could think was 'shit'.

Ray was loving the fight the twins on TV were having. He kept rooting for Eric because Sammy was a complete biatch and everybody seemed to know it except for Eric. Or well he knew it now. Sammy was just about to slap Eric when he heard a loud crash from the kitchen. His head snapped up and he quickly turned around to see Lee standing in the kitchen with both her hands on the counter seemingly trying to steady herself. Ray quickly rose and was by her side in no time.

"What happened?" he asked, his voice full of concern.

"Nothing, I just dropped a glass. Sorry 'bout that," she answered, trying to sound as normal as possible.

"You sure about that?" he countered, not really believing her story.

"Yes I'm sure. I was getting my pills and I slipped on the floor so I grabbed the counter and therefore dropped my glass," she said letting go of the counter and praying to god that her legs would hold her.

"Right…" he said eyeing her suspiciously. "Why don't you go back to bed and I'll make you some soup or something," he said taking a hold of her arm and trying to lead her back to his room.

She removed his arm, "I'm not hungry and I'd rather not go back to bed. It feels like I've been cooped up there forever now. I'd much rather take a bath if you don't mind. I'm starting to smell," she informed him while scrunching her nose.

"You need to eat something. You haven't eaten in almost two days."

"Yeah well last time you said I had to eat something it ended up coming up the same way it went down. I ain't doing that again," she said folding her arms over her chest.

"I know, but your body needs nutrients to get better. You know what? I'll make you a deal, you can have a bath if you promise you'll eat something when you're done," he proposed.

"Alright, I guess that's fair," she nodded.

"I'll draw you a bath then," he told her walking into the bathroom.


	18. Chapter 17

**Authors Note: **Thanks to all of you who has reviewed. I really appreciate it. It's really nice to know what you guys think of the story and give me some ideas as to what should happen.

**melbo18:**I have no idea if Eric is back on the show, I live in Sweden so we're a bit behind you guys when it comes to DOOL. And yeah, the dude who played Eric was on Smallville this season. He's also been on Dark Angel.

* * *

About an hour later she was sitting by the kitchen table clean and in fresh clothes. She felt more like a human being than she had in days.

In front of her was a bowl of chicken soup. Why did people always make chicken soup when someone was sick? Did it have some healing powers she didn't know about?

She took the spoon she had been given by her friend who was sitting opposite her watching her every move. After a couple of mouthfuls his gaze was starting to annoy her.

"Do you mind?"

"No not at all, carry on," he said with a smirk.

"You know what I mean. Can you not stare at me while I'm eating. Go put on some music or something. Just don't stare,"

Ray got up and Lee was left with her food.

A few seconds later the room was filled with the melodic voice of Brandon Boyd, singer in Incubus. She felt her heart swell from the sweet gesture, he didn't like Incubus but she'd made him buy the CD and he'd only let her listen to it on special occasions.

He once again sat down opposite her but this time he'd brought a magazine with him. She looked at him and mouthed thank you. He simply smiled at her and started reading whatever it was he was reading.

A few minutes later Lee had finished almost half of what he had given her. She put the spoon down and pushed the bowl away from her.

"I'm done," she informed him.

He looked up from his magazine and looked at her and then at the bowl.

"You haven't even eaten half of it. And I didn't give you that much. 3 more bites, that's all I ask," he said trying to bargain with her.

"Nu-uh, I really can't get anymore down," she said feeling the all too familiar queasy fealing come over her.

"Please? For me?" he said giving her his puppy dog look.

Shaking her head she quickly stood up and ran to the bathroom where she started throwing up violently

Just like the previous times, Ray was by her side in no time holding her hair back. When Lee was finished she sat down on the floor utterly exhausted and in pain. It had really hurt this time. It felt like her chest was going to explode.

Ray got a cup of water for her to wash her mouth with and handed it to her. She gratefully accepted it and washed the foul taste from her mouth and spit the water out into the toilet. She then sat back down and closed her eyes, gathering some strength to make it to the bedroom.

Ray looked at the miserable form of his friend. A pang pf guilt hitting him as he knew he caused this. He knew she had to eat but it still hurt him that he had caused her pain.

"I'm sorry," he said looking at her.

"It's not you fault," she said, her eyes still closed.

"Mm," was all he said looking down.

She didn't know if he was agreeing with her or muttering. She was ,however, too worn out too have the strength to ask so she simply remained quiet.

The pair sat on the bathroom floor opposite each other for almost 10 minutes. It had taken Lee this long to realize that she was going to need some help to get back to bed. She was reluctant to ask but she knew she had to.

"Ray?" she said looking at him, her voice weak.

"Yeah?" he said looking up.

"I think I'm going to need some help to get to the bedroom," she said looking down, ashamed that she couldn't get there by herself.

Ray stood up and took his friends hands and tugged her up to a standing position. He put an arm around her waist and held her up as she was about to fall over.

The two slowly made their way over to the bedroom where Ray helped the poor girl into bed and pulled the blanket over her. He laid down next to he rand held her close until she fell into a much needed slumber.

Lee had been asleep for almost three hours and Ray had been checking on her regularly. She kept tossing and turning as if though she were in pain. She also seemed to have more trouble breathing and her cough had gotten worse. This worried him as he knew that even though she had a mild case of pneumonia complications could occur and they could rear their ugly faces pretty fast. After the fourth hour he couldn't stand hearing her toss around anymore. He walked into the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed.

Shaking her lightly usually did the trick. If anyone tried waking her up any other way she would usually bite their head off. Lee wasn't much of a morning person.

Sure enough, she tiredly opened her eyes.

"Hi," she said, her voice laced with sleep.

"Hey, how you doin'?" he asked, hoping she'd be honest with him.

"Same old same old," she lied, not wanting to mention that her chest was starting to bother her. She knew she probably should but she figured it might go away by itself and she really didn't want a repeat visit to the ER for nothing.

"You sure?" Ray asked, not convinced.

"Why do you keep asking that! Of course I'm sure. Now is there a reason why you woke me or can I go back to sleep?" she asked slightly annoyed but his questioning.

"No, no reason. Go back to sleep," he said tucking her in and standing up to leave.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you," she whispered.

"It's okay. Get some sleep," he told her walking out and closing the door.


	19. Chapter 18

**Authors Note:** Thenks so so much to all of you eho've reviewed. I love reading them and feel free to come with suggestions as to what you'd want to happen in the story.

Eponinehugo: Thank you so very much, you made my day with that review. I never thought anyone would actually like the story when I started it, I just wrote it for fun. So it's great that you like it so much. Thanks again.

* * *

Three days had passed since Lee's visit to the ER and she wasn't doing any better. The only thing that had gotten better was her stomach flu. She'd been able to keep some light food down without it coming back up again.

She'd managed to get Ray to actually go to work now instead of just getting someone to cover his shift as soon as she wasn't looking.

Lee had just been woken by the front door closing and her friend humming some god awful song. She looked at the alarm clock positioned on the night stand next to the bed. It was only 8 pm, she'd actually been able to sleep for five hours without interruptions.

She slowly got out of bed and wrapped herself up in one of the 5 blankets that currently resided on the bed. Pulling it tightly against her thin form she made her way to the kitchen where she found her friend drinking a glass of juice.

"Hey," she said sitting down at the table.

"Hey. Want some?" he asked pointing to the juice?

"Yes please," she said nodding.

"So how you feelin'?" Ray asked, putting the glass in front of her.

"The same as when you left… I was able to eat some soup though," Lee informed him with a small smile.

"Good, good," he said with a yawn.

"Tired?" she asked.

"Yeah, the ER was a total war zone today, it was crazy," he told her rubbing some sleep from his eyes.

"Well why don't you go to bed and get some sleep then?"

"I think I'm gonna have a shower first,"

"You do that. I'm just gonna go to the bathroom real quick first though," she said heading for the bathroom. When she was finished she went to the bedroom and found her friend fast asleep, still in his scrubs. She pulled a blanket over him and carefully crawled into bed next to him. Before laying her head on the pillow she kissed his cheek. "Night Ray," she whispered before moving on to dreamland.

Sometime in the middle of the night Lee was awoken by a fit of coughs, it wasn't the coughing as much as the sharp pain in her chest that had woken her up. With every cough it felt as though her chest was going to explode. When the coughing finally subsided she looked at Ray, glad to see he was still asleep, but then again, the guy could sleep through anything if he was tired enough.

She contemplated waking him up and tell him about her chest pains and that she was having some troubles breathing but she didn't want to disturb him. He'd done so much for her already, he deserved a good night sleep.

She tried to ignore the pain and go back to sleep. She couldn't ignore it but after a while she fell into a restless sleep nonetheless.

Ray woke up around 6 am by Lee crying. He rolled over to face her when he noticed she was crying in her sleep. She had a pained expression on her face and she was holding her hands over her chest. Her breathing was coming out labored as well. This was not a good sign.

He tenderly but firmly shook her awake.

She opened her eyes and he could tell by the way she looked at him that she was in a lot of pain.

"What's the matter babe?" he asked her, concern evident in his voice.

"My chest…I can't breathe," she stated in between sobs.

Sitting up he reached for the phone on the nightstand and quickly dialed 911. Letting the operator know the situation and the address he hung up the phone to focus n his friend.

"Has this been going on long?" he asked her.

"It's gotten gradually worse over the last three days," she managed to get out..

"It's been going on for three days and you didn't tell me! What the hell Lee?" he yelled, mad and hurt that she hadn't told him. Didn't she realize that this could be serious?

"I'm sorry," she whispered. As she did so she started coughing and this time the pain was unbearable. When it subsided she buried her head in the pillow and cried. She simply couldn't take the pain anymore.

"You really should have told me hun, it wouldn't have had to go this far," he told her, getting out of bed getting dressed.

About 5 minutes after he'd called 911 there was a knock on the door. Within the matter of three minutes the paramedics had Lee on the stretcher on their way out of the apartment. Ray grabbed Lee's bag and purse right before locking the door and running to catch up with the EMT's


	20. Chapter 19

**Authors note:** Once again I'd just like to thank all of you for the lovely reviews, you all enspire me to write. I'll try to write and update as often as possible but since Iwork it might be a couple of days at least between updates

* * *

True to his word, Ray stayed by Lee's side throughout the examination. He stroked her hair and whispered soothingly to her, he held her hand when they took a blood sample and hooked up the I.V and was right there with her when she was sent up for a chest X-ray.

Ray hadn't left his friends side except to get some coffee and go to the bathroom. He was currently on the phone with Brett explaining that he wasn't going to be able to make it to the gig that night. Although bummed that the gig was off Brett understood why Ray couldn't make it, Lee was a sweet girl and no one in their right mind would just leave her alone in a hospital to make a gig. That would just be wrong.

Ray promised to call Brett later and hung up the phone. Just as he did so Luka walked in with the results.

"Let me guess, pleural effusion or empyema?" Ray asked a bit nervous.

"Pleural effusion," Luka nodded.

"How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad. There's a large quiantity of fluid gathered around her left lung," The older doctor informed the younger one.

"What are you planning to do about it?" the young doctor asked with some concern.

"As it is such a large accumulation of fluid we are going to have to drain it. Had it been smaller we could have just put her on some antibiotics but as it seems now we are going to have to drain it," Luka remorsefully told his colleague.

"Uh-oh, this is not good. Lee is so not going to take this well," Ray said looking at his friend.

"Why don't you wake her up so we can tell her what's going on,"

Ray did as he was told and gently shook his friend awake. She opened her eyes looking slightly disoriented until she could place where she was.

"Hi," she said to her friend.

"Hey you. We got the results back from your X-ray," Ray told her.

"Okay?" she said, scared of what they were going to tell her.

"You have what we call a pleural effusion," Luka offered.

"A what?" Lee asked starting to freak a bit.

"A pleural effusion. It's when fluid gathers in between the two pleural membranes that covers your lungs. Usually there's just a small amount of fluid in between these membranes but due to the pneumonia the excess fluid hasn't been able to drain properly hence the pleural effusion," Ray told his friend.

This was not helping calm Lee's nerves at all, on the contrary in fact. It was just scaring her even more. She kept thinking that this was it, she was going to die.

"Is that bad?" she asked with wide eyes.

"Well it's not good, that's for sure," Ray said.

"And you're going to do what about it?" Lee asked looking from her friend to Luka and back again.

"We are going to have to drain the fluid. This is to help your breathing and the chest pain," Luka informed the young girl.

"If this involves needles or any other sharp object piercing my skin then forget about it," she told the two, making no effort to hide her feelings about the situation.

"Lee, it'll be okay. The area where the needle goes in will be numbed up. You'll feel some pressure at most," Ray told her, in an attempt to reassure her.

"No, no way. It's not happening," Lee said, obviously starting to panic.

"Hey, hey, calm down. I'll be right here with you. No one's here to hurt you. We're all just trying to help," he said trying to calm her.

"I know but no," she said crossing her arms over her chest, a gesture telling the two doctors that she meant business.

"Could I talk to Lee alone for a sec," Ray said, turning to Luka.

"Sure," the attending answered and left.

"Look, you need to let us do this. I know you're scared but it's a really simple procedure and you'll feel a lot better once it's over. I promise," Ray said, looking Lee straight in the eye.

"Don't you think I know that? Why do you keep pressuring me into these things? Do you know how hard this is for me?" she said, sitting up and looking straight back at him, desperation evident in her eyes.

"I'm pushing this 'cause I'm worried about you. And no I don't know how hard this is for you, no one but you knows that. I can imagine, but I can never know," Ray said, his voice softening when realizing how scared the girl actually was.

"I know you're worried. But I can't do it, I just can't," Lee told him, on the verge of tears for the umpteenth time since she got sick.

"Yes you can, you're stronger than this. You can do it, I know you can. And like I said, I'll be right here with you, I won't let anything bad happen," Ray said in a desperate try to convince her to go through with it.

Seeing her sigh in resignation he knew he'd won the battle.

"Fine," she said, her tone laced with sadness.

"You'll do it then?"

She simply nodded and Ray got up, kissed her forehead and went to get Luka.


	21. Chapter 20

**Authors Note: **Hope you guy's like this new chapter, I had a different idea planned out but this seemes better somehow so I really hope you like it.

And eponinehugo, I kind of used your idea. I hope you don't mind.

* * *

About 15 minutes later the two doctors walked into the room where Lee was staying only to find her bed vacant and the girl nowhere to be seen. 

"Shit!" Ray yelled.

Lee had somehow managed to pull out the IV by herself and leave without anyone noticing her.

The men looked at each other and nodded, both then running out and looking through every room in the ER and the ambulance bay, Ray even called Brett to tell him to go to his apartment and see if she was there, they searched the whole ER with no luck. Brett called 20 minutes later to let Ray know that she wasn't there.

Knowing her she'd never stay in the hospital so where could she have gone? She usually went to his place when she was upset.

This was driving him insane. He needed to clear his head and get some air 'cause he clearly wasn't thinking straight if he couldn't figure out where his best friend was, the girl he knew better than he knew himself.

He made his way up to the roof where he always went when he needed some space. Walking out onto the roof he made his way to the edge looking out over the city wondering where the hell Lee could be.

Looking to his left he saw a figure all bundled up at the far end of the roof. He quickly made his way over and what do you know, if it wasn't Lee.

"Lee. Where the hell have you been!" he yelled at her.

"Here," she said calmly gazing at the city, not even bothering to look at him.

"You can't just leave like that, I've been worried sick! We've been looking for you for over an hour!" he said, his tone sharp.

"I needed to think, plus I didn't leave the hospital so technically I didn't 'leave'" she stated, still not looking at him.

"Gaaaah! Why do you have to be like this! You're driving me insane!" he yelled.

"I'm sorry," she said, looking at him for the first time. She gave him her puppy dog look which she knew he couldn't resist.

He felt himself melting. There was no way he could stay mad at her, no matter what she did, he just couldn't be mad at her.

"I know hun, I know. But you can't ever pull a stunt like that again! Understand?" he said.

She simply nodded and resumed looking out at the city.

"Come on, let's go inside before you catch a cold too," Ray said with a smirk.

"Ha ha, funny," she said sarcastically but making no move to get up.

"Let's go," he said bending down to help her up.

"Ten more minutes, please?" she pleaded.

Thinking about it he figured that ten minutes wouldn't really matter, so he agreed and sat down beside her.

Laying his arm around her she snuggled closer to him and put her head on his shoulder. He pulled her closer and looked at her small frame, despite the fact that she was still very sick she was absolutely stunning. Her dark hair falling and framing her face beautifully, her chocolate brown eyes sparkling with the light from the city, her cheeks rosy from the chilly winds. He couldn't deny that she was a very beautiful girl.

Lee felt his gaze and turned to look at him. Looking into his eyes she could see something there that she hadn't seen before, she didn't know what it was but it certainly hadn't been there before.

She looked at him and couldn't help but notice how incredibly good he looked and how nice it felt to be wrapped in his arms. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't notice them inching closer to each other until his warm lips were on hers. She put her arms around his neck as he shifted so she was sitting in between is legs facing him. The kiss was deep and tender, both wanting it more than anything else at that precise moment. He put his hands in her long, silky, dark hair, pulling her even closer and deepening the kiss until they were forced to break apart for air.

"That was…" Lee started, touching her lips.

"…amazing," Ray finished.

"Doesn't really do it justice," she countered.

An akward silence fell between them, both unsure of what the kiss meant to the other.

"So…" Lee said, not really having anything to say.

"What happens now?" Ray asked.

"I don't know," Lee said, looking at him.

Ray took a deep breath, "I don't know about you but I don't want this to be a one time thing. You mean too much to me" he said, unsure of how she'd react.

"I don't want it to be a one time thing either, and I care about you too. I just don't want it to screw up out friendship," she said honestly.

"It won't, we won't let it," he said.

"Promise that no matter what happens we'll still be friends," she said with some urgency.

"Promise," he said, taking her face in his hands and pulling her in for a kiss.

Blushing she pulled away from him. Discreetly she took his hand and leaned back against him. Letting out a content sigh she resigned herself to looking out over the city again.

Ray felt his heart melt at such a small gesture as her taking his hand. He couldn't for his life understand why he hadn't realized what he really felt for her sooner, for the feelings he had inside where the most remarkably amazing ones.

Feeling her shiver against him he wrapped his arms tightly around her, warming her as best he could.

A few minutes later they were still sitting on the roof, Ray holding a very sleepy Lee.

"Baby, we need to go in," he told her smoothing her hair lightly.

"Mmm," she said, nodding slightly.

Standing up Ray helped Lee to her feet, the pair made their way back down to the ER- hand in hand.


	22. Chapter 21

**Authors note:** Sorry for the long wait, but you're all probably used to it by now. But Like I said, sorry, and I hope you like this new chapter.

* * *

Lee grabbed on to Ray's hand for dear life, fearing what was ahead of her. She was feeling okay at that moment but she knew that was due to the pain meds she'd been given. She also knew that if they didn't get the procedure over and done with she'd be in a hell of a lot of pain very soon and that was not something she was particularly looking forward to.

Ray let one of the nurses know that he had found Lee and that she should let Luka know so they could get this over and done with. The two made their way to Lee's bed where Ray helped her up and tucked her in.

Lee relished the softness of the bed, she hadn't realized how much her little escapade had worn her out.

Ray was sitting on a chair next to Lee's bed when Morris walked in a little while later carrying a tray with various instruments which Ray knew where to be used on his girlfriend.

"Hey there, why don't we get this over with shall we?" Morris said, putting the tray down.

"Whoa, where's Kovac?" Ray asked, standing up and standing in front of Lee in a protective manner.

"He's in trauma so I said I'd do it," he said.

"I saw this one earlier, nice catch," he added so only Ray could here, pointing to Lee.

"Right. You know what? I think I can manage this by myself thank you," Ray said, trying to coax Morris to the door.

"No can do little man, you two are too close. Don't worry, trust the boss," Morris said, pointing to himself.

Grumbling Ray noticed that he hadn't hooked Lee back up to the monitor. He changed that rather quickly when he realized he couldn't stop Morris from performing the procedure.

Lee was then told to lie on her side with her knees drawn up towards her chest. Ray walked round to the other side so he could face her. He sat down in front of her, however, making sure that he could see everything that Morris was doing. Lee could hear Morris bustling around with something behind her but she didn't know with what and that was starting to make her apprehensive. Ray noticed her heart rate was going up slightly and realised why.

"Babe, don't worry. I'll be right here and he won't do anything without warning you first," Ray said taking her hand and giving her a light kiss.

Morris then cleaned and numbed up an area on Lee's back and was just about to insert the needle.

"Okay, here we go. Ready?" Morris said, looking at Ray.

"Lee, you're going to have to lie really still now okay?" he said looking at her.

She looked up and nodded slightly. Ray motioned for Morris to start and soon felt Lee squeeze his hand as he saw the needle pierce her skin.

All while Morris was draining the fluid Ray was busy keeping Lee calm, he smoothed her hair, whispered reassuringly to her. He even sang a bit from her favourite song. Although he was paying most of his attention to Lee he still kept a close eye on Morris. He really didn't like the way things were going. He was draining the fluid much too fast. It had to be drained slowly or things could get really bad.

"Hey Morris, aren't you going a bit fast?" he said concerned.

"Nah, don't worry. I know what I'm doing," Morris replied with a smile and kept up the same pace as before.

Lee who was trying her best to keep calm was starting feel really strange, her chest was starting to hurt a lot worse than it hade before. She held on to Ray's hand even harder and closed her eyes as the tears started falling.

"Ray?" Lee said, looking at him with confused eyes, a pained expression covering her face.

"What's the matter sweetie?" Ray asks with a frown, smoothing her hair. He noticed that her forehead felt cool to the touch.

"It hurts," she said, choking down a sob.

He hadn't noticed it until now, but she had gone extremely pale and her heart rate had increased substantially. It had now passed a 100 beats per minute.

"Shit! Morris, take the needle out?" Ray yelled.

"What? Why?" came the reply of a very confused Morris that seemed annoyed the Ray had disturbed his deep concentration.

"She's going into shock!"

When the needle was out Lee rolled onto her back, fear and pain evident in her eyes.

"You went too fast! I told you but you didn't listen. Fuck, I knew this was going to happen!" Ray exclaimed.

"Whatever dude. Anyways I came prepared," Morris said, reaching and grabbing a syringe he had on the tray. Injecting the solution into the girl the two doctors rolled her into trauma yelling for assistance on the way.

Abby, Luka and Chuny came running into the trauma room after hearing the plea for help.

A line was started and the meds that Morris had given her seemed to be starting to kick in as her heart rate was beginning to return to normal. He breathing was starting to come out extremely laboured and this was causing a slight panic within Lee.

Ray noticed this and took her hand again, "Lee, baby, you're going to be fine okay?" Ray reassured the girl who simply nodded in reply.

"Morris what did you give her?" Luka asked, also noticing Lee's breathing.

"A Beta blocker, why?" He asked, donning his standard look of confusion.

"You idiot! She's asthmatic! Didn't you read her chart!" Ray yelled.

"Of course I did, must have missed that part though," Morris said with a shrug.

"Ray?" Lee managed to squeak before loosing consciousness.

"Shit!"

After that everything was a blur for Ray. Lee had been placed on a nebuliser to help her breathing. She'd then been given a steroid to reverse the effect of the beta blocker, this however, had brought her heart rate back up again. They treated it correctly this time as Morris was sent out of the room at Ray's request. He didn't want his anywhere near himself or Lee after what he had managed to do. He felt a little bit better when he heard Luka yell at Morris outside of the trauma room when Lee was stable.

Ray was sitting by her side, everyone else had left to tend to other patients as they weren't needed at the moment. It had been a little over half an hour since Lee had lost consciousness and she still hadn't woken up and that worried him. He knew that the ordeal she had been through had taken a strain on her body and that she needed the rest but he really wanted her to open her eyes. He needed to know that she was okay, he needed to hear her say it.


	23. Chapter 22

**Authors Note: **I just want to thank you all for the lovely reviews I've gotten and at the same time apologize for not updating in such a long time.

I would also like to send a special thanks to Lea for all your help. I would never have gotten this chapter done without you.

Anyways, I hope you'll all enjoy this new chapter and hopefully I'll get the next chapters out pretty quickly.

* * *

Slowly opening her eyes Lee looked around only to find Ray asleep on a chair with his head against her bed. She repressed the urge to smack him over the head. How the hell could he have been so stupid as to let Morris plunge that damn needle into her? What was he thinking? He knew what kind of doctor Morris was and he still let him near her.

As if on cue Ray opened his eyes only to find himself staring into a pair of angry brown ones.

"Hey baby," he whispered.

"Get out," she whispered fiercely.

"What?" Ray was now utterly confused. Why was she mad at him this time?

"You heard me, get out. I don't want you anywhere near me," she struggled to get the words out for she was still in a lot of pain.

"What the hell? What's the matter with you?" He was starting to get annoyed now, he hadn't done anything and still she was acting like he was her arch enemy or something of the sort.

"Don't play dumb, you know what you did. You're not that stupid!"

"Well apparently I am 'cause I have no clue why you're acting like this. Would you mind filling me in?"

"You don't get it do you? You fucking let Morris do that to me! You know what a screwup he is and you still let him near me. In my book that's just as bad as doing it yourself" She yelled the last part but regretted it pretty quickly as her throat was still in pretty bad shape.

"You have got to be kidding me? I've done everything I can to make sure you're alright! I would never intentionally hurt you and you should know that by now," Her words had hurt him more than she could probably imagine. All he wanted was for her to be safe and he tried his best to protect her.

"No I'm not kidding you, you're just as responsible as Morris so just get your ass out of here. I can't even look at you," She turned her face away from him.

"You know what? I am going to let you cool off and we'll talk when you've calmed down," He swiftly got up and walked towards the door.

"I'm as calm as I need to be," she hissed.

Shoving the door open Ray stalked out heading towards the lounge. What the hell had gotten into her? He had never seen her this way before, sure she had a bit of a temperament but this was ridiculous seeing as he wasn't even the one that did that to her. Reaching the lounge he plopped down on the sofa crossing his hand in front of his chest. Taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm down he just found himself getting more upset and annoyed.

Lee hadn't been this mad in her entire life, how dare he play with her life? He could risk his own in whatever way he saw fit but hers wasn't his to jeopardize. Not matter how much she tried to calm down she couldn't get rid of the anger and resentment she felt towards Ray. The thing that made her go postal was the moment Morris had the audacity to step his foot inside her room.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" She hissed. If looks only looks could kill.

"Um, my job," he looked at her utterly confused in a Morris like manner.

"I don't think so, get out!" she was in disbelief that he'd actually have the guts to com near her again after what he did.

"Woah there girl. Calm down," he held his hands up in defense as he walked closer to her.

"Don't you fucking touch me, get the hell out!" she yelled as best she could with her throat in the condition that it was.

"What's the matter with you?" Morris temper was starting to flare.

"Well you almost killed me for starters so I'm sorry if I don't particularly want you anywhere near me," she sneared. "Now get the hell out!" she added yelling. She could feel her blood boil with anger towards this man.

"What's going on here?" Luka entered the room after hearing Lee yelling for some to him unknown reason.

"I want him out of here," she glared at Morris.

"She's obviously lost it," Morris pointed out to Luka.

"Morris get out," Kovac pointed towards the door. The red haired doctor looked at his boss in utter disbelief.

"What? Why?"

"Morris! Now!" Luka was in no mood to play games with the younger doctor, especially seeing as Lee was starting to get very upset and they needed to avoid that at all cost.

"Fine," he grudgingly agreed and exited the room but not before casting a glare Lee's way.

"I'm sorry about that. I thought I'd gotten through to him that he was under no circumstances to come anywhere near you," Kovac slowly approached the bed in which the very sick and upset Lee was laying.

"I want to leave," She looked straight into the tall mans eyes.

"Lee, that's really not a good idea,"

"I don't care. I don't want to be anywhere were either that moron or Ray could possibly be,"

"Why don't I just make sure that they stay away?" he tried to reason.

"I don't think you heard me. I want out of here and I want out of here now."

"I heard you but you have to understand that you're still very sick,"

"I'll be fine once I'm in my bed far away from dumb and dumber," she started to raise her voice again.

"I understand that you don't want them around but is that really worth risking your life?" He said calmly, hoping she'd see reason and stay.

"Well let me put it like this if I go I might die, however, if I stay Morris and Ray WILL die. And I'd rather not go to prison for the rest of my life thank you very much" Was this man dense in some way 'cause she was clearly not getting through to him.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take." He grinned at her trying to lighten the mood and in the process calm her down some more.

"Look, you have no right to hold me here and if you think the scene I caused with Morris was bad you haven't seen anything yet," She threw off her covers and started to get out off bed. Her legs weren't ready for the weight being put on them so she almost fell over when her feet hit the cold tile of the trauma room

"Whoa," Luka caught her before she had the chance to fall. Lee grabbed hold of the bed to steady herself and motioned for him to let her go.

"You're right, I can't keep you here but this has to tell you something? You're not even strong enough to stand yet, how do you think you'll be able to take care of yourself?"

"I can stand, look" she let go of the bed and managed to stand without toppling over.

"Fine you can stand but to get better you've got to be able to do more things than stand. You really need to stay," He was starting to wonder if he had ever met someone as stubborn as this girl in his life.

"I'll manage. Now get this thing out of my arm then fetch whatever papers I need to sign so I can get as far away from this place as I possibly can." She glared at him and pointed to the I.V on her arm.

"Fine," he shook his head in defeat. He had a sinking feeling that this was going to end up badly but he removed the I.V nevertheless

Once he left she sighed in relief, she couldn't wait to get home.


	24. Chapter 23

**Authors Note:** Here you go guys, hope the wait wasn't too bad this time ;)

And as always, thanks Lea for all your help.

* * *

Half an hour later she had had almost accomplished her goal of getting home. She had signed all the necessary paperwork and was standing on the curb waiting for a taxi. Never had she had this much trouble standing up but the rage coursing through he veins overpassed the weakness and helped her keep standing. She struggled to stay awake the whole way back to her apartment and with some extreme willpower she managed to do so. When they cabbie pulled up outside her apartment building he offered to help her up to apartment, obviously noting the bad condition Lee was in, but being the stubborn girl that she was she politely declined and paid the man.

As the cabbie drove off Lee slowly made her way into her apartment building and even slower up the stairs. What usually was a 1 minute walk up 3 flights of stairs took her almost 5 minutes to ascend. She stopped several times on her way up to catch her breath and let her weak body rest.

After all the stops she finally got to her apartment much to her relief. She opened the door, stepped in and threw off her coat that Ray apparently had brought with them when the Ambulance took her in. Her usually clean apartment had started to collect dust after no one being there for almost a week and a half. Who knew it would get that dirty in that short amount of time. She didn't really like to clean much but due to her asthma she had to keep it as dust free as she could. If she wasn't feeling the way she did she would have started cleaning ASAP but as things were she just plopped down on the sofa, loving the feeling of being in her own apartment and on her own sofa. Now if she could only get to her bed things would just be peachy. However, after a few tries of getting off the sofa she gave up and resigned to falling asleep where she was. It took no more than 3 minutes for sleep to wash over her and carry her into a restless sleep.

For hours she tossed and turned desperately trying to find a position that would allow her to breathe easily. She was, however, unsuccessful. For roughly 2 hours after she got home she woke up with a jolt, trying with all her might to catch her breath. She could feel her chest tightening and her breath coming out with a wheezing like sound.

Despite being in the weakened shape that she was she managed to push herself up and off the couch as she set out to get her inhaler. The one she had in her purse was much too far for her to get but she kept another one in the medicine cabinet in her bathroom. Much to her dismay she didn't get further than halfway before toppling over. She struggled to crawl closer to the bathroom but the more she moved the harder it was to breathe. She tried lying still on the floor fighting to catch her breath but when it didn't work she could feel the panic rise within her. What had she done? Why couldn't she have just stayed? She couldn't believe why she had to be so darn stubborn at times, if she hadn't been she wouldn't be in this situation. If only she hadn't treated Ray the way she had. Deep down she knew it wasn't really his fault what had happened but at the time she had felt as if it was. Right now she was regretting that though and wished he was with her more than anything.

Luka wandered into the lounge in search of a hot cup of black coffee which he so desperately craved, only to find Ray fast asleep on the couch with a troubled expression on his face.

"Ray," he said softly but still loudly enough to bring Ray back to the land of the conscious.

"What? Something wrong? Is Lee alright?" his mind instinctively thought the worst.

"No Lee is fine as far as I know. What are you still doing here?" Luka asked while pouring himself a cup of the coffee he had been fantasizing about for the last hour.

"I don't know, I had a fight with Lee so I came here to calm down, I guess I must have fallen asleep" he rubbed his eyes and stretched, trying to get rid of the sluggish feeling that remained in his body after his "nap".

"Looks like it. Want some?" Luka said, pointing at the coffee pot.

"Nah, I'm good thanks. I think I should go have a little talk with Lee, she was pissed beyond belief earlier. For no sane reason for that matter." He pushed himself off the sofa and stretched one final time

"First of all I think you should see it from her side. She's really sick and probably didn't fully understand the consequences of what could happen. You, however, did and she trusts you so when you allowed someone like Morris to do a potentially dangerous procedure like that on her which he of course screwed up it was like you betrayed her trust and played with her life."

Ray contemplated this for a minute. In a way it kind of did make sense, in a twisted girly way that is but then again Lee was a girl so he probably did have a point.

"Man, you sure are in touch with you feminine side," Ray scratched the top of his head, seemingly still mulling over what Kovac had said.

"It's a gift really" Luka smiled.

"I have to go talk to Lee," He started off towards the door but came to a screeching halt when Luka spoke.

"She left,"

"Excuse me, what?" he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"She was hysterical and no matter what I did or said would calm her down. She insisted on leaving AMA and there was nothing I could do to stop her you know that,"

"God she drives me insane, she's too stubborn for her own good," he fumed grabbing his jacket and heading towards the door. "Thanks Dr. Kovac," he offered before he walked out and hurried towards Lee's apartment.


	25. Chapter 24

**Authors note:** We're nearing the end of the story now so I hope you all enjoy this new chapter which just so happens to be the longest one yet.

Thanks for all the reviews guys, they are very much appreciated.

And as always a special thanks to Lea for helping me with the medical stuff, and well pretty much everything else too. Thanks hun.

* * *

The short drive seemed like an eternity to Ray. He kept going over in his head the million things he needed to say to her, especially the thousands of reasons why signing herself out of the hospital in her condition was beyond stupid. She was known for doing stupid things when she was pissed but this was just ridiculous.

When he reached her building he quickly parked his car and ran inside, taking the stairs two at a time. Reaching her door he started to knock and ring the doorbell, when no one answered after over a minute he got out the key Lee had given him for emergencies and unlocked the door.

Lee had given up, her breathing wasn't getting any better and she had realized that she wasn't going to be able to get her inhaler. Nothing short of a miracle was going to save her this time.

Suddenly she heard a knock on the door followed by the doorbell ringing. She tried to yell but nothing came out. Damn voice, someone's outside and you won't work, she thought annoyed.

The knocking and ringing went on well over a minute but when it suddenly stopped she knew there was no hope left for her.

She thought she heard the front door being unlocked but figured it was her mind playing tricks on her from the lack of oxygen until she saw Ray standing over her.

Ray swiftly looked through the rooms of Lee's apartment one by one until he saw Lee lying on the floor trying to catch her breath..

He was kneeling at her side in no time at all, the yelling was going to have to wait.

"Lee," he gently turned her over so that she was laying on her back, giving him a chance to check her over.

Her breathing was labored and very shallow and rapid. He counted her respiratory rate while talking to her reassuringly.

Never in her life had she been so happy to see Ray. She tried to tell him what was wrong but nothing came out.

"Shh, Lee you have to be quiet now. You're going to be okay," he said soothingly as he picked her up and carried her to the sofa. He put her down gently before running and getting her purse where he knew he kept her inhaler. He'd been with her when she'd had asthma attack before but they were few and far between. He found her inhaler easily as he silently thanked God for giving her a doctor smart enough to prescribe her and Epipen for her bee allergy.

Lee could feel her hands and feet start to tingle slightly and what she couldn't see was that her lips had taken a slight shade of blue. This made her even more scared than she already was, not that she thought that was possible but apparently it was. She tried shaking away the feeling in her hands but it wouldn't work, and with that she really started to panic.

Ray could clearly see the change from scared to panicked in her eyes and he knew he needed to do everything he could to keep her calm. Panicking in her state just made breathing even more difficult and that was something they couldn't have happen.

"Hey, hey, listen to me. You're going to be fine, you hear me? I'll help you through this okay?" he smoothed her arm soothingly in an attempt to calm her down.

She knew he would do everything he could but him reassuring her still wasn't helping, she just got the feeling that it was worse than she thought.

"Try and take a deep breath" he said as he held her asthma inhaler to her lips. He figured she wouldn't be able to take a deep enough breath for it to work but he had to at least try. Sure enough, no matter how much she tried she just couldn't catch a deep enough breath which meant her asthma inhaler was useless to them at the moment.

"That's okay. I know this in going to be hard but I'm going to need you to sit up with your knees bent," he explained, making sure to sound as calm as possible.

"Think you can do that?"

She nodded as he helped her sit up making sure her knees were bent. This position helped relieve some of the pressure that was being put on her heart.

"Good girl. Lee, listen to me now," He tried to get her attention which wasn't an easy feat as she was wrapped up in herself.

"Try and take deep, slow breaths. It's hard, I know but try. Like this," he showed her how he wanted her to breath as he dialed 911.

He quickly described the problem and gave the operator the address before hanging up.

"The ambulance is on its way. Look at me," he said touching her arm gently to get her attention. "Good, now breathe with me. In…….and out…….In…….and out" he kept going, letting her know when to breath. She tried as best she could but kept getting more and more upset by the minute due to the fact that she couldn't do such and easy thing as breathe on command.

"You're doing so good," Ray gently took her wrist in his hand as he took her pulse all the while helping her count when to breathe. Never again was he going to underestimate the luxury that was a stethoscope as he put his ear to her chest to listen to heart and lungs. He desperately needed to asses the extent of wheezing and strain that was being put on her heart. It wasn't just her breathing he was worried about now, it was her heart as well. As her breathing was off the lack of oxygen to the heart could result in a heart attack or even cardiac arrest.

What he heard disturbed him deeply as her heart beat was fast and irregular, almost 140 bpm with a few ectopic beats, which indicated that her heart was in distress form the severe lack of oxygen.

"You know there are better ways of getting back at me than having an asthma attack. I'll write you a list later" he smiled at her slightly.

The beats her heart was skipping were causing Lee a lot of pain and with each one skipped she would let out a cough, thankfully they weren't too many as they hurt quite a lot.

"You're doing really good baby. The ambulance will be here any minute,"

Just for the hell of it he picked up her inhaler and put it to her lips, telling her to try and take one big breath

"On three, one, two, three. In," he counted down for her. She took the deepest breath she had during this whole ordeal but it wasn't near strong enough to get the inhaler to administer anything at all, not even the slightest particle.

"That's fine, you're fine," He wracked his brains for things that usually came so naturally for him in situations like this. If he didn't do something soon she could end up having a heart attack. Never once did he let on how panicked he felt inside, he just kept up a brave front which Lee at any other time would have seen through in a minute but thankfully not this time.

Gently laying Lee back down he placed two fingers on her neck and found her pulse. Massaging it clockwise he attempted to slow her heart rate down, this was a maneuver they call carotid sinus massage and hadn't his head been so clouded he probably would have thought of it earlier. Every 5 to 10 seconds he would switch sides and massage the other side. As he did this Lee noticed how the pain she had been feeling in her chest had started getting worse and worse. The pain had started to feel like someone was trying to squeeze her heart and it had started to radiate to her neck. Not being able to tell this to Ray she got his attention by grabbing his arm with one hand and placing her other on her chest to show him that it hurt, she really hoped he'd get her drift.

"Does it hurt?"

She nodded as he gently grasped her wrist and once again checking her pulse only to find that it was now weak, irregular and dropping rapidly. As much as he hated to admit it, she was having a heart attack.

Lee wanted nothing more than to scream out in pain, she didn't know what was happening to her but she did know that it hurt like nothing else had ever before. She wasn't a religious person but she prayed to God to either help her out or make it quick, not long after she passed out from the pain.

Ray was still keeping a close eye on her pulse which was still dropping and as it hit 50 bpm he grabbed her Epipen from her bag and gave her the shot.

This thankfully brought her heart rate back up again to almost 100 bpm which was entirely acceptable.

Ray carefully moved Lee into recovery position, wondering were the hell the ambulance was seeing as it had been 15 minutes since he called 911.

He called dispatch again to confirm that an ambulance was in fact on its way which it was but it was 5 minutes away.

When he hung up he noticed that Lee was starting to stir and very slowly opening her eyes.

"Hey there pretty girl," he smiled lightly as he grasped he wrist to check her pulse. Even though her heart rate was alright he still needed to keep a close eye on it as well as her breathing to make sure she didn't have another heart attack for she probably wouldn't make it through one more.

A small tear escaped from Lee's eye.

"Hey, hey, what's this? You're going to be okay," he tenderly wiped the tear away.

She nodded and fought the drowsiness that threatened to pull her back into unconsciousness.

"You are doing so good Lee, just stay awake for a little bit longer,"

She once again nodded and reached for his hand, holding on to it for dear life.

"I'm sorry," her voice came out raspy and barely audible but just loud enough for him to hear.

"I know sweetie, I know." He kissed her hand and smoothed her hair back.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door which Ray hurriedly answered, relieved to see it was the paramedics.

"Where the hell have you guys been? It's been almost 30 minutes since I called," he was a bit annoyed that it had taken as long as it had.

"Sorry but it's crazy out there, drunks and bar fights everywhere. You know how Friday night are man," One of the paramedics said.

"So what have we got?" the other one asked as they reached Lee on the sofa.

"This is Lee Halliwell… " Ray started to fill them in on her history ant the events leading to this ordeal as the paramedics started her on oxygen and laid her on the stretcher.

"Heart rate is 100bpm, resps 40. Suspected MI brought on by an asthma attack," he grabbed her things once again as they headed out the door.

"She's pretty lucky that you came around then Doc," one of the paramedics pointed out as they loaded her in the ambulance and hurried towards County where they were greeted by Luka and Sam who were standing in the ambulance bay waiting for them to arrive.

"Lee Halliwell, 23 years old. Pulse 100, resp 40. She had an asthma attack which brought on an MI which the EKG confirmed."

"Alright, get her into trauma 1," Luka ordered.

Lee was treated with a cardio specific beta blockers and was but on a nebuliser to help her breathing. The days events had worn her out completely and she slept for hours on end with Ray never leaving her side once.


	26. Chapter 25

Lee slept well into the next day with Ray still at her side, he refused to leave her even to get something to eat. He wanted to be at her side to make sure nothing like the night before happened, even though he knew there were more than plenty competent doctors and nurses to care for her. He still felt the need to be at her side, and he was, up until nature called. Rushing back from the restroom he found Lee starting to stir. He sat down on the chair he had been occupying for the last several hours and took her hand in his.

Lee slowly opened her brown eyes to find Ray at her side and she suspected he had been there all night, if she knew him right he had been.

"Hi there," Ray smiled at her.

"Hi," she murmured weakly, still very groggy.

"You gave me quite a scare last night babe," He stood up and started to examine her carefully, mostly to still his own worry.

"Sorry about that,"

"I know, how you feelin'?" he asked softly, noting that her heart rate was steady at 54 bpm. Usually this would be low but the beta blockers she was being given were bringing her heart rate down to keep as little strain on her heart as possible.

"Very tired and very sore" she mumbled as she struggled to stay awake.

"That would be the medication you're on, don't worry about it. Are you in a lot of pain?"

She nodded and mumbled something he didn't quite catch.

"I'll see what I can do about that," he started to head for the door.

"Wait," Lee said weakly.

"Yeah?" Ray returned to her side.

"Please don't go," she whispered faintly.

He nodded and sat down again taking her hand in his, tracing small patterns with his thumb

"What happened?" she asked after a few moments of complete silence

"We can talk about that later," he tried.

"No, I want to know what happened," she said a bit more firmly all the while fighting to suppress the groggy feeling that refused to leave.

Ray would have wanted to keep this from her for a bit longer but he knew she wouldn't take no for an answer so he complied.

"Fine. When I found you in your apartment you were having a severe asthma attack. You couldn't take your inhaler and the Ambulance took forever to get to us. The lack of oxygen to your heart from the asthma attack caused an MI."

"MI?" she asked confused.

"A heart attack" he said quietly.

"What?" She was sure it was the drugs that were messing her head up because she thought he had said that she had suffered a heart attack. She was only 23, she couldn't have had a heart attack when she was that young, that was just crazy, downright absurd is what it was.

"Baby, you had a heart attack," he told her once again.

"No but that's impossible, I'm too young for that," she could feel the tears well up in her eyes as the realization sunk in. She shook her head tiredly as to try and wake up from the nightmare she was currently in.

"Hey, hey, Lee, you're going to be fine," He got up and sat down on her bed.

"I'm going to help you through this okay? You're strong so I know you can do this,"

"No I can't," she shook her head as tears streamed down her pale cheeks.

"Yes you can. You can't let this break you. We're going to get you better," he softly wiped away the tears from her eyes but they were quickly replaced with more.

"I haven't lied to you thus far have I?" he asked her and she shook her head no.

"I'm not about to start now so trust me when I say that you're going to get better,"

Lee's tears had started to slow down, making her even more tired than she had been before. She let out a yawn followed by a frown. The yawn had reminded her of the pain in her chest.

"I'll go get you something for the pain," he noticed a flash of pain in her eyes just from yawning. He could see her tense as he stood up.

"I won't be long. Don't worry, I promise I'll be right back.."

She nodded slightly and he hurried out the door in search of painkillers.

A few minutes later Ray walked in with a syringe in hand, he had completed his mission of finding Lee something for the pain. When he walked through the door he found Lee trying to get out of her bed. He should have known she'd try something like this.

"What do you think you're doing?" He tossed the syringe onto a nearby counter and ran to her bed where she was sitting, trying to reach the floor so she could stand up.

He gently lifted her legs back onto the bed and carefully laid her back down.

"What the hell Lee! You can't keep doing these this!" He yelled exasperated.

"I know you don't want to be here but you can't keep pulling these stunts, not now. Your body can't take it right now!" he ran a hand through his hair as he let out a large sigh.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as a few tears found their way down her cheek once again.

"Come on babe, don't cry," he softened somewhat but she had to know that she couldn't keep that behaviour up, it had already gotten her in a lot of trouble.

"I can't help it" the tears kept coming in a steady flow. She didn't want to feel this weak and helpless. It was eating her up inside that she couldn't take care of herself. She was a very independent individual and the fact that she had to rely on Ray this much was hard on her.

"I don't mean to be like this," she looked miserably at Ray.

"I know you don't, you just have to stop trying to break out of here," he sighed an kissed her forehead.

She nodded as the tears once again started to slow down. Ray got the syringe and injected the drugs into her I.V.

"This is going to help with the pain" he said, putting the syringe away.

"Thank you, for everything," she said quietly

"Your welcome," he smiled softly at her.

"Try and get some more sleep," he sat down in the chair next to her bed.

She nodded and closed her eyes, letting sleep wash over her.


	27. Chapter 26

Carter peered in through the window before he walked into the exam room where a very tired looking Ray was sitting and watching Lee. Ray always seemed to try and make people think that he was this carefree person who didn't care about anything but the expression of worry Carter saw on his face told him otherwise.

Ray hear the door open and looked up to see Carter walk in with Lee's chart in hand.

"Hey Carter," his voice came out raspy, almost as if he had been sleeping.

"Hey. She's still asleep I see," Carter motioned to Lee.

"Yeah, she woke up a few hours ago and tried to make a run for it though," Ray gave a small, slightly bitter laugh.

Carter shook his head at her stunt, she should know better seeing as her first break out was what landed her here in the first place.

"Why don't you go get some food? Or a cup of coffee at least. You've been sitting here since she was brought in" Carter was starting to get worried about Ray, he'd been starting at her for hours now.

"Actually I've been to the bathroom a few times. And I did get her something for the pain so I haven't been sitting here the whole time." He stated matter-of-factly.

"Ray you're going to make yourself sick if you don't eat. And you're no good to her sick so go," Carter mean business, Lee was going to need Ray and he would be no help to her if he got himself sick too.

"Fine, tell her I'll be back in a little while," Ray got up and placed a tender kiss on Lee's forehead before reluctantly leaving the room.

Once Ray was out of the room Carter gently woke Lee from her deep sleep.

"Hey there, I'm Doctor Carter," he said softly when she opened her eyes.

"I remember you," She wasn't fully awake but coherent enough to at least answer him.

"How are you feeling?"

"I've had better days," she gave him a tiny groggy smile.

"Where's Ray?" she noticed that he wasn't in the room.

"I told him to go get some food, he'll be back soon. Are you in a lot of pain?" he asked as he checked her temperature.

"Not too bad, mostly just tired"

He continued to check her pulse and BP as well as listen to her chest. He obviously found her history to be inadequate as he started to take a more extensive medical history and Lee tried as best she could to give him the information he needed, despite her current state.

"We're probably be going to send you up for an echo, an echo is basically an ultrasound of you heart to check the condition of your heart." He explained, trying to make it sound as little scary as he could.

Lee nodded, to show him that she was listening and that she hadn't fallen back to sleep despite her drooping eyelids.

"We're still waiting for a bed in the coronary care unit so we'll probably get the echo done before your bed is ready,"

"You should get some rest, I'll be back to check on you later," As Carter turned to leave a man in his thirties ran in, locked the door and started rummaging through the medical supplies.

"Sir? Sir you can't be in here," Carter walked up to the man and grabbed his arm.

"Don't touch me!" The man yanked his arm back and gave Carter a menacing look.

"That's fine, but I'm still going to have to ask you to leave," Carter remained calm, he knew exactly what this guys was after but he sure as heck wasn't going to find it in there.

"I'm not going anywhere until someone helps me!" he continued to rummage through drawers and cabinets, throwing supplies all around him as he went along.

"Why don't we go back to your bed and I'll see what I can do," Carted tried to coax the man out of the room, he had known from the second the guy barged in that he was a drug seeker. He was sweating, his pupils were dilated and he couldn't stop shaking, all the classic signs of an addict.

"No! That's what the other doctor said! I'm not falling for it again."

"Sir, if you don't leave the room right now I'll call security,"

The man just stared at Carter for a minute before quickly locking door.

"No, No security! You got me?" he started withdrew a gun that he had been hiding in his jacket.

"Fine, no security," The second the gun came into view carter could hear Lee yelp in surprise.

Lee couldn't believe this was happening, first she went from having pneumonia to having a heart attack and now there was some psycho threatening them with a gun. Her life had turned into a bad daytime drama in the last couple of weeks. The second the man pulled out the gun she could feel the fear well up inside of her. She started to wonder who or what she had pissed off to make all of this happen. She was sure that she had used up all of her luck and now that she had made it though that heart attack she was going to be shot to death. Tears started to slowly make their way down her face. No matter how much she tried to fight the tears they just kept coming.

"None of us are going to leave this room until I get something for the pain!" the man pointed his gun back and forth between Lee and Carter.

"We don't keep any in here, we're going to have to leave the room for that,"

"I said we're not going anywhere! You need to listen!" the man kept flailing the gun all around.

"I can't help if you don't let me out," Carter tried.

"NO! You're staying right there! I know what you're trying to do and I'm not stupid, the second we walk out of this room you're going to call the security guard." He was pretty close, Carter had actually thought of sedating him and then calling the security guard but the outcome was the same.

"Not stupid ,huh? Drug addict? Now that was a very clever path to take" Lee muttered under her breath before she could stop herself. You had to be superman to hear what she had said but sure enough, as soon as the words left her lips the man whipped the gun in her direction.

"What did you say little girl?"

"Nothing," she squeaked, looking at him with wide eyes.

"You fucking said something and I want to know what it is!" he quickly walked to her bed all the while keeping the gun pointed at Carter so he wouldn't get any funny ideas.

Lee tried to speak but nothing came out, she was gripping the sides of her bed to tightly she was sure he knuckles had gone white.

"Answer me when I'm talking to you!" he grabbed a hold of Lee's arms and pulled her out of bed, the monitor coming off in the process.

Lee cried out in pain as he did this, but she didn't fight him. She knew there was nothing she could do, she was still too weak.

"Hey! Put her down!" Carter shouted as he took a step towards them but as soon as he did that the gun that had been pointed to the floor was back on him which in turn meant that Lee went crumbling to the floor as the man couldn't hold her up with only one hand.

"Get up!" the man yelled as she hit the floor.

"She can't!" Carter yelled.

"What the hell's wrong with her?" the man was actually getting a bit nervous that he might have killed her. All he wanted was something to take the pain away, he hadn't wanted to hurt anyone.

"You need to let me help her," Carter pleaded. He knew Lee must be doing fairly bad at the moment and it was extremely important that she get help.

"Fine," the man stepped aside reluctantly and let Carter pass.

As Lee fell to the floor she noticed her vision go blurry and she was having a hard time breathing. She could hear Carter and the man yelling at each other but she wasn't really paying attention to what they were saying 'cause the pain in her chest was getting very bad.

"Lee, you still with me?" Carter said as he kneeled at her side. Seeing that she was still awake he gently lifted her back onto the bed so he could look her over more closely.

He checked her pulse which was nearing 80bpm which was awfully high as she was still being given meds to keep her heart rate down.

He also listened to her chest and hooked her back up to the moniter.

All of a sudden the man decided that Carter was giving Lee far too much attention, how come he helped her that easily but not him?

"How come you'll help her but not me? Huh?" he yelled, once again pointing the gun at Carter.

"Cause she might die without my help," Carter said, not even looking up at the man, he was busy trying to calm a very terrified Lee.

"I might die too! Now help me!" the man bellowed.

The more the man yelled and waved the gun around the more Lee's heart rate went up.

"Put that gun down, I'm not going anywhere and you're making her worse by waving that thing around." Carter shouted as Lee's heart rate hit 100bpm, the strain on her heart had to be phenomenal at the moment.

The man seemed to contemplate what Carter had said, but after a few moments he lowered his gun to his side. He must have realized that Carter wasn't going to leave the girl in the condition that she was.

Just as he lowered the gun to his side there was a deafening crash as the door to the exam room came crashing down and a group of police men came storming in, all of them pointing their weapons at the man. It took them no more than a minute to convince him to drop his weapon, in a matter of seconds the police were holding him down and cuffing him.

As soon as the clatter of the gun hitting the floor Lee let the tears flow more freely and didn't try and hold the sobs back. She was in pain and she wanted Ray.

"Ray, please get Ray," she cried as Carter tried to soothe her.

"He'll be here soon, you're okay now." It hadn't taken Carter very long to figure out that she wasn't an easy person to calm down.

"No, no, no. Get him now!" she shook her head frantically.

"Lee you know I can't, he'll be here as soon as the police let him in," he sighed, she desperately need to calm down but nothing he did seemed to do the trick.

"No! Ray! Ray!" she kept yelling, he voice was weak but it didn't stop her. She wanted him here now.

Ray who had been outside the whole time was going insane with worry. One minute he's getting food and the next he'd being informed that Lee and Carter are being held hostage at gunpoint. He started to wonder when his life had turned into a soap opera.

Thank god Chuny had walked by and seen the man point a gun at Carter, if she hadn't Ray wouldn't have the police to yell at for not doing anything. They were just standing at the admit desk, discussing what to do but not actually doing anything. How could they just stand there when someone he loved was in danger. They needed to do something 'cause he couldn't stand to loose her, not now, not after all they'd made it through lately. Ray made sure to tell the cops exactly what he thought of the job they were doing At one point Jerry actually had to drag him away from the cops after one had threatened to arrest him, granted Ray had just called him all sorts of names before threatening to march into that room and get the man himself if they didn't do something.

Finally, after what seemed like days to Ray, they caught a break and stormed in, forcing the man to surrender.

When they didn't come out after a few minutes he headed towards the room only to be stopped by a cop who was still outside.

"Sir, you can't go in yet," the police officer calmly.

"It's my girlfriend in there. You need to let me in," Ray pleaded.

"Sorry but I can't do that. You'll have to wait until we say it's clear."

"You don't get it! She's really sick and probably scared out of her mind right now and that'll just make her worse!" Ray started to raise his voice.

"I'm really sorry but like I said you're going to have to wait."

Ray let out a exasperated sigh and walked back to the admit desk. As he paced back and forth he could hear Lee yelling for him and his heart broke with every cry.


	28. Chapter 27

**Authors note:** After a very long wait I now present the latest chapter. Hope ya'll like it 'cause it was a really hard chapter to write.

And as always thanks to everyone who keeps on reading and reviewing.

* * *

It was driving Ray nuts that he wasn't being let into the room. They could hear her yelling for him and they still wouldn't let him in. He couldn't say how much time had passed since the police had busted down that door but they were finally leading the man out of the ER and hadn't he been so worried about Lee he probably would have given the man a good beating.

He gave the man a glare before running into the room and Lee.

"How's she doing?" he asked Carter as he reached her bedside.

"Not good," Carter shook his head. Lee hadn't stopped yelling for Ray even though she saw him enter the room.

"Baby, I'm here," he removed her hands that she was holding over her chest and gave her a quick exam.

He hated to see her this hysterical but they needed to take care of her body first.

"Lee, hun, he's gone now. You're going to be okay," Ray said soothingly but she kept crying hysterically. He kept on reassuring her, hoping she'd listen to him for once in her life.

"Lee!" he finally yelled.

Her head snapped towards him and her sobs ceased for a second as she stared at him with wide eyes before her sobs starting up again, more powerful than ever. Then suddenly her sobs stopped and her eyes fluttered closed.

"She's in V-tach," Carter yelled as the monitor started beeping furiously

"Fuck, BP's dropping," Ray hissed.

"Get the crash cart," Carter yelled to Ray as he himself sedated her and rolled up her gown.

Ray's head was swimming, everything was just happening so fast. Despite that, his body seemed to be on autopilot as he got the crash cart and charged it.

"Charging 200! Clear!" Ray placed the paddles to Lee's chest and shocked her. He was surprised to feel the twinge of guilt in his heart as he shocked her.

"She's back in sinus. Push 150mg of amiodarone" Ray nodded and did what he was told. He was actually quite grateful that Carter was there because he highly doubted that he'd be able to hold it together if he had to handle it alone. Again….

They couldn't keep her in sinus rhythm very long and before they knew it the was in V-tach again,

"What the hell!?" Ray yelled as he charged the defibrillators.

"Clear!" he shocked her and once again he felt that little twinge of guilt.

"Back in sinus," Said Carter as Ray placed the paddles back on the crash cart.

"This is not good," Ray shook his head. He knew that it was a possibility that the ventricular arrhythmia was a complication of her heart attack.

"No it's not," Carter agreed as he tended to Lee.

A few minutes passed and both men were on edge, waiting for the worst to happen.

Another few minutes passed and still nothing happened.

Yet another few minutes passed and both Ray and Carter were starting to think they might be out of the woods.

"I'm going to get Cardio down here," Carter stated softly to Ray who looked like he'd break at any moment.

Ray gave a small nod of acknowledgement, he was far too busy with trying to keep himself together to give Carter an actual answer.

Ray couldn't say how long he had been sitting alone with Lee but he doubted it was more than half an hour. He tried to not let his mind think of all the things that could go wrong but he was fighting a loosing battle. He knew exactly what could happen and how bad it would be and it was breaking his heart.

He rested his head against her bed and closed his eyes as he let out a loud sigh.

His eyes shot open at the sound of the shrill beeping of the monitor Lee was hooked up to.

"No, no, no. Lee come on, don't do this," he was on his feet in a split second. He grabbed the crash cart and charged it to 200 for the third time.

He placed the paddles to her chest and shocked her yet again. It was becoming a disturbing pattern that he hoped would end soon.

Ray let out a sigh of relief as the monitor showed that she was back in sinus. However, he knew that it could change in a second again and that was killing him.

Just as he placed the paddles back on the crash cart Carter walked in with another doctor in tow.

"How is she?" Carter looked worried as he had seen Ray put the paddles back..

"Not good, she went into V-tach again," Ray was having a hard time keeping his voice steady

"That's the third time in about an hour,"

"She's definitely going to need a cardioverter defibrillator," said the doctor from Cardio. His name was Jonathan Brody and Lee had obviously lucked out 'cause this guy had an extremely good reputation, why the heck he was still at County was beyond Ray.

"I know," Ray frowned, he had known that for the last half hour but hearing it was a whole different thing. It made it real.

Lee was rushed to the OR where they began the procedure immediately. Ray had insisted on scrubbing in but that idea had been crushed promptly by both Dr. Brody and Dr. Carter. He was allowed to observe but he was under no circumstances to be in the OR.

Ray was going insane with worry even though he knew she was in excellent hands. Being confined in the theater was driving him up the walls; he kept pacing back and forth thinking and analyzing the day's events until there was nothing left to analyze. He tried to pinpoint the moment where everything went wrong and no matter how he twisted it he came to the same conclusion. If Morris hadn't screwed up, Lee wouldn't have left and they wouldn't be in the situation that they were. The more he though about it the madder he got, he could practically feel his blood boil. In all fairness he wasn't just mad at Morris, he was equally disappointed in himself. He knew Morris was going to screw up in one way or another so he shouldn't even have let him near Lee in the first place. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that he had almost lost someone he cared so much about. Lee had always been the one he had gone to when it all got to much and he needed to vent but since that wasn't possible he felt lost. Truly and utterly lost.

Ray had been so deep in thought that he hadn't even heard someone walk in.

"Hey," came the voice of his probably least favorite person on the planet.

"Morris, leave." Ray took deep breaths to keep from slugging his ass down right that second.

"What?" he had that dumbfounded tone in his voice. One could really wonder how he managed to become a doctor when he seemed to have a single digit IQ.

"You've got to the count of three to get as far away from me and Lee as you possibly can," Ray growled.

"What's you're problem?" Morris was getting upset. Everywhere he went today and everyone he talked to seemed to give him shit.

"You're my problem! How dare you even come within a hundred yards of me after what you did!" Ray turned to him for the first time since he walked in and Morris could clearly see the hatred in his eyes. Hatred that was obviously reserved for him.

"Whoah there. Calm d..." he was interrupted by the large purse being swung at his face. It connected rather harshly with his left eye.

In anger Ray had grabbed Lee's purse and swung it at Morris, her iPod and several other things spilling out in the process.

"Don't fucking tell me to calm down, if it wasn't for you Lee wouldn't be in there," he yelled and pointed to the operating room.

"What is your problem?!" Morris yelled, clutching his eye.

"You're my problem! Just get the fuck out of here!" Ray yelled, he didn't know how long he could keep from actually killing Morris.

Morris didn't move a muscle, he just stood there looking at a furious Ray with a confused look plastered on his face.

This of course infuriated Ray even more, how could Morris be so oblivious?

"I said, get out!" Ray lunged at Morris but as he did so a large figure intervened and kept him from doing more damage to Morris' face.

"Ray, no. This isn't going to help," Luka said as he struggled to hold Ray back.

"Yes it will!" Ray yelled.

"Morris! Get out of here! NOW" Luka bellowed to the red haired man who seemed to finally take the hint that he wasn't welcome and left.

Ray attempted to storm after Morris but was held fast by the older doctor.

"Let me go!" Ray yelled.

"No! Hurting him won't make things better!"

"Yes it will!"

"No it won't, now calm down!" Luka held Ray in place until he felt the younger man relax. He released his grip on him but was prepared incase he made a run for it.

Ray let out a shaky sigh, all of this was taking a huge toll on him

"Let's get some coffee," Luka offered.

"I really don't want to leave her," Ray hesitated.

"They'll be here when we get back, there's nothing you can do for her right now, especially when you're like this," Luka ushered Ray in front of him to the cafeteria.

Ray slumped down on a chair with a hot cup of coffee in his hands, slowly stirring the black liquid he stared into it like it held the answer to all his problems.

The two men sat in silence for sometime until Ray finally spoke.

"I can't loose her, not now. I just got her," Ray said quietly, still looking intently at the coffee cup.

Luka said nothing, sensing that Ray needed someone to listen more than anything.

"I'm such an as for not seeing it earlier. We've been friends for a long time, how could I not have seen it, it was right in front of me the whole time. She's the most caring and sweet person I've ever known I really should have figured out my feelings for her sooner," He sighed deeply.

"I've never cared so much about someone in my entire life. She's the one I talk to, the one that's always there- I can't loose that, I can't loose her," Ray wasn't much for showing emotions but he couldn't hold it in any longer, a silent tear fell from his eye. He wiped it away furiously but it was in vain for it was quickly replaced but several more

Luka was at loss for words, there wasn't really anything he could say that would make much of a difference right now.

The two men sat in silence for some minutes before Ray stood up.

"I'm going to go check on Lee,"

"Alright," Luka stood up as well.

"Ah, thanks for listening," Ray was somewhat embarrassed about the situation.

"Not a problem," The two hugged awkwardly and pulled away quickly.

"Well, I'll be going," Ray said with a slight blush.

"Yeah."

Ray made his way back to Lee, feeling better now that he'd gotten his feelings out but it had still been somewhat uncomfortable.

When he arrived Dr. Brody was just finishing up in the OR and before long Lee was rolled in to recovery. As he waited for her to wake up he had a chat with Dr. Brody who informed him that she did very well and things went very smoothly. This of course stilled some of his worry but he knew for a fact that she wasn't out of the woods yet.

He waited hour after hour for her to wake up, refusing to leave even for food. He stayed awake for as long as he could but after a few hours he couldn't fight it any longer and dozed off in the chair he was sitting.

Ray was obviously in a restless sleep for he woke the second Lee started to stir. He took her hand and waited impatiently for her to wake up.

Soon enough those brown eyes fought their way open, it wasn't without a struggle that she kept them open.

"Hey pretty girl," he smiled, fighting back the tears that were threatening to make their presence known.

"Hi," her voice was raspy and laced with sleep-

"How you feelin'?"

"Like hell,"

"Figured as much," he said sympathetically.

The room went quiet

"Babe, you're going to need someone to help you get back on your feet when you get out of here," he said softly, "so I'm going to get some of your stuff and bring it to my place," he added cautiously.

"I can't stay with you," she shook her head tiredly.

"Yes you can,"

"No I can't,"

"Why not?" he sighed, sometimes he didn't really understand what was going on her head.

"I can't keep relying on you," she said with some force, "I'm not going to be your burden" she said firmly.

"Is that what you think? That you're a burden?" he asked in disbelief.

"Sort of, I mean I'm used to taking care of myself and I pride myself in being as independent as I am. I just don't want you to have to do everything for me,"

"Look, you could never be a burden. Sure things are going to be hard for a while now but we're going to make it through this. And I'd much rather have you somewhere where I can keep an eye on you instead of walking around worrying all the time," he truly meant it. He'd go insane with worry if he couldn't keep an eye on her. He knew that it was going to be tough on them both but she would have done the same for him if he had been in her position.

Lee seemed to contemplate this for a moment. She didn't want him to worry but things were going to fast, they had just gotten together and now she was moving in, that was more than she could handle.

"Don't do this to me, you know I don't want you to have to worry about me but this is going too fast,"

"I know this is rushing it a bit but you can't expect me to just leave you at your apartment all alone. That's not going to happen," he said sternly, giving her look that told her that she could protest all she wanted but in the end he was getting his way.

"Just to get thing clear, do I have any say in the matter?" she asked with a sigh.

"Not really no,"

"Fine, but you better keep in mind that this is only temporary. I don't want to intrude more than I'm being forced to," she gave in.

"Thank you, and you won't be intruding. Now I know you're exhausted so why don't you get some rest,"

"I'm okay," she stifled a yawn.

"Lee, you don't have to be scared, you're safe here,"

"Yeah well you can't be too sure about that now can you," in actuality she was exhausted and could barely keep her eyes open but she didn't particularly want to go to sleep after what had happened.

"Sure, there could be a freak accident like a huge boulder destroys the hospital but other than that, no one is going to hurt you," he said earnestly.

"You promise?" she whispered without looking at him.

"I promise, now close your eyes and stop fighting it," he said softly as he stroked her hair.

Doing as she was told for once in her life she closed her eyes and not long after she was fast asleep in what was to be a much needed sleep.

Ray sat with her until he was absolutely positive that she was asleep. When he was sure he kissed her forehead lightly before leaving her room to get some much needed rest of his own.


End file.
